The USS Milwaukee
A tale of two wrecks
The USS Milwaukee was originally dispatched to haul another wreck, the H3 submarine.
Go to the Samoa beach at very low tide, and you may see some odd triangular plates jutting out of the surf like rusty shark fins. They are the remains of the once great USS Milwaukee.
The story goes back to 1917 when Europe was embroiled in World War I and the US was being drawn into it. It began with the tale of an ill-fated submarine. At the time, submarines were a fairly new technology and often had surface ships accompanying them. On Dec. 14, 1917, the submarine H3 was approaching Humboldt Bay. Disoriented in the fog, it mistook the smokestacks at Samoa’s Hammond lumber mill for the stacks of its minding ship and headed straight, not for the bay entrance, but for the Samoa beach.
Several boys on their way to school at first thought they’d spotted a beached whale. Their excited news brought teachers, the Coast Guard and town folks to the beach where eventually the 27 stranded sailors were rescued.
The sub, however, remained stranded. Locals familiar with techniques for hauling huge logs, proposed dragging the H3 over the peninsula to the bay. But the Navy rejected this low-tech idea and instead decided to send three ships, including the newly minted cruiser Milwaukee, to use cables and pull the sub out to sea.
However, on Jan. 13, 1918, the notoriously rough tides and currents off our coast foiled the plan. Cables broke, and the Milwaukee was dragged shoreward and grounded in the surf. Again, locals came to the rescue. Life boats and rescue lines eventually brought the over 600 crew members to shore. Sight-seers thronged the beach recording the event with many cameras. The local plan for the sub was reverted too, and the H3 was eventually hauled across the peninsula and sent on its way to San Francisco.
Over the next weeks, the Navy built a pier (the remains of which can still be glimpsed) out to the wreck so as to salvage what they could. And for years afterwards, locals used the wreck for thrilling games and souvenir hunting. Today ceramics, cutlery and chunks of carved wood from the Milwaukee can be found in some local homes and museums.
The stigma of the US Navy’s most expensive disaster to that date was soon overshadowed by the horrors of the First World War. But the skeletal remains off our shore remain, a haunting reminder of Humboldt’s place in US naval history.
The H3 submarine wreck in foreground. The Milwaukee, in background, is approaching to assist.
Rescuing sailors from the Milwaukee wreck. From the Price Collection.
The Milwaukee wreck being salvaged by crews. The pier was built for this purpose.
The Captain’s table, salvaged from the wreck.