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 When
asked by Navy officials to choose a Coast Guardsman whose
name should grace a new Fletcher-class destroyer, World War
II commandant Russell Waesche singled out revenue cutterman
Frank Hamilton Newcomb as by far the best candidate.
A man of modesty, humility and strong work ethic, Newcomb
was born in 1846 and raised in Boston. As a teenager, he
sailed on his father's merchant ship and, at age seventeen,
he began serving in the Union Navy's South Atlantic
Blockading Squadron. After the Civil War, Newcomb received a
third lieutenant's commission and served the 1870s and 1880s
on revenue cutters and as an inspector for the U.S.
Lifesaving Service, helping to establish the first all-black
station located at Pea Island, North Carolina.
During the 1890s, tensions mounted between the United States
and Spain over the island of Cuba. At the time, Newcomb
served on cutters in Pacific waters. But in September 1897,
he assumed command of the cutter Hudson, homeported in New
York Harbor. The tensions between the U.S. and Spain
simmered until they boiled over in February 1898, with the
sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor. In early April,
Hudson slipped her moorings and steamed south to the Norfolk
Naval Shipyard to prepare for war.
The Norfolk Navy
Yard was buzzing with activity when Hudson arrived to take
on arms, armor and ammunition. The Service's first
steel-hulled cutter, the ninety-four-foot Hudson had a
tugboat design; and her crew included five officers and
eighteen enlisted men, including two warrant officers, a
cook, ship's steward and ship's boy. Hudson later received
two six-pound rapid-firing guns, one each located fore and
aft; and a Colt automatic “machine gun” mounted on top of
the deckhouse. She also had a layer of five-eights-inch
armor bolted around her pilothouse and deckhouse.
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The USRC Hudson normally patrolled the waters of New York City. The
Navy called her into service for the Spanish-American War and
ordered Newcomb to bring the cutter to the Norfolk Navy Yard (April
21, 1896) to be outfitted for war. (U.S. Navy courtesy photo)
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On April 21, 1898, Congress declared war with Spain and the
Treasury Department transferred several revenue cutters, including
Hudson, to the Navy. Newcomb found himself serving as a part of the
U.S. Navy once again. Within two days, Hudson set out from Norfolk
for Key West, Florida, the staging area for U.S. naval operations
around Cuba. Off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the cutter met
with a severe storm, including hurricane winds, thunder, lightning,
mountainous seas, torrential rain and hail. The storm nearly washed
away Hudson's pilothouse, but the new armor plate held everything
together against the heavy seas. In early May, Hudson finally
arrived in Key West and Newcomb received his orders.
Due to
her relatively shallow draft of only 10 feet, the naval command
assigned Hudson to blockade the Cuban coast between the ports of
Cardenas and Matanzas. Just days after her arrival in Key West, the
cutter took up her duty station and Newcomb began scouting the
approaches to Cardenas Bay. Cardenas had three Spanish gunboats
defending it, and Newcomb tried his best to draw the vessels out for
a fight, but they refused to leave the safety of the bay. Newcomb
then sounded the two main channels into the bay only to find them
filled with debris. He considered plowing his way through the
debris, but feared the presence of underwater mines. After further
reconnaissance, he found a third channel with no debris that was
passable only by shallow-draft vessels at high tide.
Newcomb developed a plan to capture the gunboats by sending
American warships through the third channel. On May 11, 1898,
gunboats USS Machias and USS Wilmington, and torpedo boat USS
Winslow appeared outside Cardenas Bay to assist with Newcomb's plan.
The Machias drew too much water to enter the bay and participate in
the attack on Cardenas. Instead, she laid down a barrage on the
barrier islands to eliminate enemy snipers from the bay's entrance.
During high tide, between noon and 1:00 p.m., Hudson, Wilmington and
Winslow steamed slowly through the narrow passage. Wilmington's
captain, Cmdr. Coleman Todd, sent Hudson in search of the gunboats
on the eastern side of the bay and ordered Winslow to search the
western side. Later, Winslow and Wilmington rendezvoused 3,500 yards
off of Cardenas, where Todd spied the enemy gunboats moored at the
city's waterfront.
Todd directed Winslow's commanding
officer, Lt. John Baptiste Bernadou, to investigate the situation. A
Foote-class torpedo boat, Winslow seemed perfectly suited to capture
or destroy the Spanish gunboats. She carried one-pound rapid-fire
guns and torpedoes, and drew only five feet. Winslow also carried a
crew of twenty enlisted men and two officers. Executive officer
ensign Worth Bagley, came from a distinguished North Carolina
military family that included brother-in-law Josephus Daniels,
future Secretary of the Navy.
As often happens in combat, the
original plan of attack fell apart after the fighting began.
Bernadou backed the stern of Winslow toward Cardenas, likely to
minimize exposure to the enemy, make use of the stern-mounted
torpedo and allow for a fast exit strategy. But as soon as Winslow
came within 1,500 yards of the city's wharves, Bernadou found
himself sitting between white range buoys deployed by Spanish
artillerymen to aim their guns. The enemy gunners opened fire with
one-pound guns from the moored gunboats and salvoes fired from
heavier artillery hidden along Cardenas's waterfront.
After
witnessing the initial salvoes, Hudson steamed at top speed from the
bay's eastern side and Newcomb requested permission from Commander
Todd to engage the enemy. By 2:00 p.m., the Spanish gunboats and
artillery had fired on the Winslow, Hudson, and the distant
Wilmington, with her heavier four-inch guns. According to an
eyewitness account, Spanish guns rained down shells from
half-a-dozen directions, but the enemy positions were tough to spot
because the Spanish used smokeless powder ammunition. The Americans
relied on outdated black powder, which clouded the gun crews' vision
and alerted the enemy of incoming shells.
As the battle
raged, Spanish gunners focused their fire on Winslow, shooting down
her smokestack and ventilator, holing her armored conning tower, and
disabling her steering gear and engines. In addition, an on-shore
wind was pushing the crippled vessel toward shore and shallow water.
Bernadou called out to the approaching Hudson, “I am injured; haul
me out.” Newcomb reacted instantly, steering Hudson through the
muddy shallows and churning up brown water with her propeller. The
cutter came in close while Ensign Bagley and a number of Winslow's
crew stood on deck to receive a heaving line from the Hudson. The
enemy fire intensified and Bagley yelled out, “Heave her. Let her
come. It's getting pretty hot here.”
By the time Hudson
closed the distance, an enemy shell exploded on Winslow, killing
Bagley and an enlisted man and mortally wounding three crewmembers.
These men were the first casualties of the Spanish-American War and
Bagley the first American officer killed in the conflict; several
posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Despite the enemy shelling, unfavorable winds and shallow water,
Hudson's crew managed to secure a three-inch hawser to the Winslow
and began towing her out of range. Within minutes, the hawser
snapped due either to the strain or an incoming shell. Newcomb
persevered, exclaiming “We will make it fast this time.”
Risking his own vessel and crew a second time, Newcomb plowed
further into the mud, backing and filling to carve a ditch in the
sea floor to the stricken Winslow. Hudson's engineers never missed
an engine order bell during the cutter's fast-changing steam engine
operations. Meanwhile, the cutter's deck crew secured a line to
Winslow and made fast the torpedo boat beside the cutter in tugboat
fashion. This time, Newcomb succeeded in hauling the stricken vessel
beyond the range of enemy guns.
Hudson not only saved the
Winslow from certain destruction, she poured 135 six-pound shells
into the enemy in 20 minutes. After the fierce firefight, Newcomb
received orders to ferry Winslow's dead and wounded to medical
facilities at Key West. In the evening, the casualties were loaded
on board the cutter and Newcomb steamed at top speed to the Navy's
base of operations, arriving at 7:00 a.m. the next day. In one
exhausting 24-hour period, Newcomb and his men had scouted Cardenas
Bay, fought the enemy, rescued Winslow and sped her casualties to
distant Key West.
In mid-August, at the conclusion of the
brief war, the cutter returned to a rousing welcome at her homeport
of New York. In a special message to Congress, President William
McKinley congratulated Hudson for rescuing the Winslow “in the face
of a most galling fire” and recommended special recognition for her
crew. A joint resolution of Congress provided the cutter's line and
engineering officers with Congressional Silver Medals and Bronze
Medals to her enlisted crewmembers.
Newcomb's courage and
determination had prevailed against heavy odds in the daredevil
rescue of USS Winslow. He received the war's only Congressional Gold
Medal, also known as the Cardenas Medal. In addition, the Revenue
Cutter Service advanced Newcomb seven points in the promotion
system, fast-tracking him to the senior rank of captain in 1902.
Despite this recognition, many familiar with the Battle of Cardenas
Bay strongly believe Newcomb deserved the Congressional Medal of
Honor for his heroism and stubborn determination in the face of
fierce enemy fire.
Frank Hamilton Newcomb retired in 1910
after 40 years of service and received the flag rank of commodore in
retirement. Newcomb died in 1934 and his body was laid to rest on
Coast Guard Hill beside other Service heroes at Arlington National
Cemetery. From his birth in Boston to the naming of a hard-fighting
World War II destroyer in his honor, the story of Frank Hamilton
Newcomb spanned a century. Newcomb was a member of the long blue
line and his career proved a testament to the U.S. Coast Guard's
core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty.
By William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2015
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