View source for USCGC Unalga

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{|{{Infobox ship begin|infobox caption=USCGC ''Unalga'' (WPG-53)}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image= Ulua Marsseille 1946.jpg
|Ship caption=''Unalga'' in civilian service as ''Ulua''<br />in [[Marseille]], France, in 1946
}}
{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United States|coast guard-1915}}
|Ship name=USCGC ''Unalga''
|Ship namesake=[[Unalga Island (Fox Islands)|Unalga Island]], Alaska, U.S.
|Ship owner=
|Ship operator=United States Coast Guard
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|Ship builder=[[Northrop Grumman Newport News|Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation]], [[Newport News, Virginia]]<ref name=Canney67-68>Canney, pp 67&ndash;68</ref>
|Ship original cost={{USD}}250,000<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name=RoM377-380>Record of Movements, pp 377&ndash;380</ref>
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|Ship launched=10 February 1912<ref name=USCG01>''Unalga'' 1912, Cutters, Craft & U.S. Coast Guard-Manned Army & Navy Vessels, U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office</ref>
|Ship sponsor=Miss Elizabeth Hilles<ref name="USCG01"/>
|Ship christened=10 February 1912
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|Ship commissioned=23 May 1912<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/>
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|Ship decommissioned=10 October 1945<ref name="USCG01"/>
|Ship maiden voyage=20 April 1912, [[Hampton Roads, Virginia]]<ref name="RoM377-380"/> 
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|Ship fate=Turned over to War Shipping Administration for sale. Sold 19 July 1946.
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|Ship displacement=1,181 tons<ref name="USCG01"/>
|Ship length={{convert|190|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|32.5|ft|abbr=on}}
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|Ship propulsion=Triple-expansion steam power-plant producing {{convert|1300|ihp|abbr=on}}
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|Ship range=Cruising: 7.9 knots, 4200 mile range
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|Ship complement=73 (1930)
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|Ship armament=*2 six-pounder rapid fire guns (1912)
*2 × 3"/50 cal guns, 2 x 20mm guns, 2 x depth charge racks (1943)<ref name="USCG01"/>
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'''USCGC ''Unalga'' (WPG-53)''' was a [[Miami-class cutter|''Miami''-class cutter]] that served in the [[United States Revenue Cutter Service]] and later the [[United States Coast Guard|U.S. Coast Guard]] and [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]]. The early part of her career was spent patrolling the Pacific coast of the United States and the [[Bering Sea]]. After 1931 she did patrol work off Florida and in the [[Caribbean]]. After ''Unalga'' was sold in 1946, she was renamed after [[Jewish Agency]] leader [[Haim Arlosoroff]] and used for six months for moving Jewish refugees from Europe to [[1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine#Background|Palestine]] before being forced to run aground by British Navy ships near [[Haifa]].

==History==
===U.S. Revenue Cutter Service===
====Reporting for her first assignment====
USRC ''Unalga'', a cutter built for the Revenue Cutter Service by the [[Northrop Grumman Newport News|Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation]], was authorized June 1911 and launched on 10 February 1912. After leaving the shipyard in convoy with [[USRC Apache (1891)|USRC ''Apache'']], she arrived at [[Baltimore, Maryland]], 27 April and was placed in commission by the Revenue Cutter Service at its [[United States Coast Guard Yard|depot at Arundel Cove]], Maryland, on 23 May 1912.<ref name="RoM377-380"/> After spending the summer outfitting at the USRC Depot, Washington Navy Yard and Newport News Shipbuilding, she received orders to report to the RCS Northern Division at [[Port Townsend, Washington]] on 6 September 1912.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/> Departing Norfolk, Virginia, on 26 September, ''Unalga'' arrived at [[Port Said, Egypt]], on 1 November after making stops at [[Port#Port of call|ports of call]] at [[Gibraltar]], [[Naples, Italy]] and [[Malta]]. While preparing to transit the [[Suez Canal]], she received orders to report to [[Ambassadors of the United States|US Ambassador]] [[William Woodville Rockhill]] at [[Constantinople]].<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/> Rockhill directed that ''Unalga'' remain in the area to protect Americans in [[Turkey]] during the [[Italo-Turkish War]] in Libya.{{#tag:ref|While Turkey was involved in the war with Italy in Libya, the [[Balkan League]] composed of [[Bulgaria]], [[Serbia]], [[Greece]] and [[Montenegro]] [[First Balkan War|invaded European Turkey]] in an effort to liberate [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] controlled areas in the [[Balkans]]. While the Greeks and Serbs moved into [[Macedonia (Greece)|Macedonia]], three Bulgarian armies drove into [[Thrace]], invested [[Adrianople]] and defeated Turkish armies at the battles of [[Kırklareli|Kirk Kilissa]] and [[Battle of Lule Burgas|Lule Burgas]]. The success of that drive alarmed the foreign community in Constantinople which led Ambassador Rockhill to call for assistance in case an evacuation became necessary. The [[United States Department of the Navy|Navy Department]] dispatched {{USS|Brutus|AC-15|6}} while the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]] instructed ''Unalga'' to remain in Port Said during the hostilities.<ref name="USCG01"/>|group=Note}} She departed Port Said on 17 December, the same day a peace conference was convened in London to settle differences between the Ottoman Empire and the Balkan League.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/> After stops at [[Aden]], [[Ceylon]], [[Singapore]], [[Manila]], [[Yokohama]], and [[Honolulu]], ''Unalga'' reported to the Commander, RCS Northern Division at [[Port Townsend, Washington]] on 22 March 1913, which in turn assigned her to the [[Bering Sea Patrol]].<ref name="USCG01"/>

====Bering Sea Patrol====
The first patrol ''Unalga'' sailed lasted from 3 May until 11 August when she returned to Port Townsend. On 21 September ''Unalga'' departed Port Townsend for a new assignment with the RCS Southern Division headquartered at [[San Francisco]] arriving for patrol duties on 25 September. She served with the Southern Division until detached on 25 March 1914.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/> She was at [[Oakland, California|Oakland]] for repairs for the first twenty days of April and left for duty in Alaska following completion of the repairs. For the next three years ''Unalga'' rotated between assignments in Alaska and Port Townsend and added the duty of enforcing the [[Neutrality Act of 1794|Neutrality Act]] when [[World War I]] started in Europe on 1 August 1914.<ref name="USCG01"/>

===U.S. Coast Guard===
====Alaska patrols====
On 28 January 1915 USRC ''Unalga'' became USCGC ''Unalga'' by virtue of the establishment of the United States Coast Guard by merger of the United States Revenue Cutter Service with the [[United States Life-Saving Service]].<ref name=GO1>''U.S. Coast Guard General Order No. 1''</ref>{{#tag:ref|President [[Woodrow Wilson]] signed Senate Bill 2337 on 28 January 1915 creating the United States Coast Guard through the merger of the United States Life-Saving Service with the United States Revenue Cutter Service. On that date the newly formed service had 25 sea-going cutters and 19 harbor tugs and launches and 270 stations. The bill authorized 4093 officers, warrant officers, and enlisted men. The service also consisted of one headquarters at Washington, D.C., 17 regional commands, four depots and one academy.<ref name=King240>King, p 240</ref>|group=Note}} In February 1915 additional duties were assigned enforcing the [[North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911]] which related to prohibited [[pelagic|pelagic sealing]] in the Bering Sea.<ref name=Kroll92>Kroll, p 92</ref> Patrol work during 1915 and 1916 consisted of summers in Alaskan waters with sealing treaty duties, law enforcement, search and rescue, medical assistance to fishermen and others, and the delivery of mail to remote camps. Winters were spent at various locations along the Pacific Northwest coast doing law enforcement patrol work.<ref name="USCG01"/> In January 1917, ''Unalga'' was assigned her first winter patrol in Alaskan waters at the urging of representatives of the fishing industry to provide medical services to crews of fishing vessels as well as search and rescue work in remote waters.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/> She stopped in [[Sitka, Alaska]] to investigate reports of a measles epidemic and to take on more coal for her first winter mission into the [[Gulf of Alaska]]. ''Unalga'''s first winter patrol was begun 30 January during a squall with hurricane force winds that iced the cutter over and threaten to sink her with the additional weight. After the [[Port and starboard|starboard]] [[whaleboat]] was smashed by heavy seas and the radio masts snapped from the weight of ice, Captain Frederick Dodge made for the shelter of [[Yakutat Bay]].{{#tag:ref|The Johnson reference<ref name=Johnson37-38>Johnson, pp 37&ndash;38</ref> used for citing this section erroneously states that Captain Frederick G. Dodge's name was Francis G. Dodge when several sources say otherwise.<ref name=register(1917)59>Register of the officers, vessels and stations of the United States Coast Guard, January 1, 1917, U.S. Government Printing Office, p 59</ref><ref name=Noble19>Noble, p 19</ref>|group=Note}} The cutter was listing starboard at twenty degrees and the crew had to clear ice from the decks and machinery with axes and steam hoses. The crew of ''Unalga'' spent the next week repairing damage to the cutter while the surgeon treated the ills of inhabitants of Yakutat and gave the resident missionary a short course in medicine. Each time the cutter would leave the shelter of the bay another gale would appear, but Dodge took care to seek shelter before the cutter was as severely iced as the first time. ''Unalga'' was recalled to [[Seattle, Washington|Seattle]] on 6 March after steaming 3000 miles, boarding 342 vessels, having given medical aid to 19 individuals, of whom three were fishermen.<ref name=Johnson37-38>Johnson, pp 37&ndash;38</ref>

===U.S. Navy and World War I===
On 6 April 1917 the United States declared war on the "[[German Empire|Imperial German Government]]" and the Coast Guard was placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy for the duration of the war by executive order signed by President Woodrow Wilson.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name=Johnson43>Johnson, p 43</ref><ref name=Larzelere7>Larzelere, p 7</ref> Duties for ''Unalga'' did not change under Navy control initially and she left for her usual summer patrol work in Alaskan waters on 4 May. At the end of the summer cruise, she was assigned submarine tender duties with the Twelfth Naval District and home-ported at San Pedro, California, arriving 17 October.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/> On 6 May 1918 she left Seattle for her usual Alaska patrol work, but in late May the captain was notified by radio to report to [[Unalaska]] to assist with an influenza epidemic. The crew tended eighty sick persons, distributed food, made coffins and buried the dead. In mid-June ''Unalga'' steamed to [[Bristol Bay]] and up the [[Nushagak River]] to [[Dillingham, Alaska]] providing medical services to the ill and burial details for the dead.<ref name=Strobridge&Noble183>Strobridge and Noble, p 183</ref> By the end of June the epidemic had abated and ''Unalga'' resumed patrol work in the Gulf of Alaska.<ref name=Johnson70-71>Johnson, pp 70&ndash;71</ref> She  returned to San Pedro and submarine tender duties on 17 October 1918.<ref name=Larzelere95>Larzelere, p 95</ref> On 11 November 1918 the armistice ending World War I was concluded but Navy control of the Coast Guard did not end until 28 August 1919 when President Wilson signed an order returning the Coast Guard to Treasury Department control.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name=Kroll130>Kroll, p 130</ref>

===Return to the Coast Guard===
====Patrol work in Alaska====
''Unalga'''s schedule of summers in Alaska and winter assignments with the Northern Division continued unchanged after the Treasury Department resumed control of the Coast Guard.<ref name="USCG01"/> Duties performed included search and rescue, fisheries patrols, treaty enforcement, delivery of supplies and mail to remote areas, transport of officials and prisoners, medical care, and law enforcement. A portion of each winter in the years 1922 to 1926 was spent on maintenance availabilities and repair work to the cutter. In February 1927, ''Unalga'' arrived at [[Winslow, Bainbridge Island, Washington|Winslow, Washington]] for a six-week overhaul, leaving 15 April for regular patrol duties in Alaska.<ref name="RoM377-380"/> On 4 November 1927, she collided with the 15 [[gross register ton]] [[motor vessel]] ''Eurus'' in [[Dixon Harbor]] in [[Southeast Alaska]]<ref name=alaskashipwreckse>Alaska Shipwrecks website</ref> where she had [[Towing|towed]] ''Eurus'' after ''Eurus''′s engine broke down near [[Cape Spencer (Alaska)|Cape Spencer]], while trying to get a new towline to ''Eurus'' after the original towline parted; ''Eurus'' sank 20 minutes later, and ''Unalga'' rescued her crew of two.<ref name=alaskashipwreckse/> On 27 June 1930, ''Unalga'' received orders to report to the Coast Guard Depot at [[Curtis Bay, Maryland]] for extensive repairs.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/>

====Decommissioning====
''Unalga'' departed Seattle bound for Maryland on 26 July 1930 and arrived at the depot on 5 September. She was placed out of commission on 16 February 1931 and moved to the [[Philadelphia Navy Yard]] for repair on 18 February. Repairs at the Navy repair facility were completed and she left Philadelphia for Curtis Bay on 27 June, where additional work was completed. ''Unalga'' was again placed in commission 23 April 1932.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/>

====Port Everglades and the Navy====
On 14 May 1932, ''Unalga'' left the Curtis Bay depot bound for her assignment at [[Port Everglades, Florida]], and she arrived on 24 May for patrol duties. On 7 September 1933 she left Port Everglades for [[Key West, Florida]], after being assigned to the Navy Special Service Squadron to be used to patrol the [[Florida Straits]] during a series of revolts that eventually put [[Fulgencio Batista]] in power in Cuba.<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/> ''Unalga'' responded along with cutters {{USCGC|Gresham|WPG-85|2}}, {{USCGC|Yamacraw|1909|2}}, and {{USCGC|Tuscarora|1902|2}}; all  stationed in Southern or Gulf ports.<ref name=Johnson133>Johnson, p 133</ref>  The Navy returned her to the Coast Guard on 1 November 1933 after the troubles in Cuba ended, and she returned to patrol work at Port Everglades. She served in the Port Everglades area until 1935 when she was transferred to [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]].<ref name="USCG01"/><ref name="RoM377-380"/> During this time ''Unalga'' provided rescue service to the stricken Pan American clipper ship, ''Dominican Clipper'', NC15376. As reported in the ''Boston Globe'', ''Unalga'' rescued 15 of the 27 passengers when the clipper crashed on landing in San Juan harbor on 3 October 1941.<ref name=Boston>Two Babies Missing..., ''Boston Globe-Herald''</ref> Shortly after she transferred to San Juan, ''Unalga'' was the oldest cruising cutter in the Coast Guard inventory.<ref name=Johnson153>Johnson, p 153</ref>

===U.S. Navy and World War II===
''Unalga'' served as a patrol cutter for the Coast Guard at San Juan performing law enforcement duties until 1 November 1941 when President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] transferred by executive order the whole Coast Guard to the control of the Department of the Navy. The Navy assigned her to [[Anti-submarine warfare|anti-submarine patrol]]s operating out of San Juan. In September 1943, ''Unalga'' was assigned to the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center at Melville, Rhode Island where she served as a "target ship" for [[PT boat]]s and then recovered the test torpedoes. In June 1945, she was relieved of those duties and assigned to the 5th Naval District at [[Norfolk, Virginia]], where she assumed patrol work.<ref name="USCG01"/>

===Immigration ship===
[[File:אוניית המעפילים חיים ארלוזורוב.jpg|thumb|''Haim Arlosoroff'' (right) aground off [[Bat Galim]], British Mandatory [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]] in 1947]]
On 10 October 1945 the U.S. Navy decommissioned ''Unalga'' and turned her over to the [[War Shipping Administration]]. On 19 July 1946 she was sold and renamed ''Ulua''. She participated in the [[Aliyah Bet|immigration of Jewish refugees]] to British Mandatory [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]]. On 24 January 1947 [[Haganah]] renamed her ''[[Haim Arlosoroff]]'' after the assassinated leader of the [[Jewish Agency]]. The ship  embarked on a voyage that carried 1,378 Jewish refugees in Sweden and Italy bound for British Mandatory Palestine. It was intercepted by the [[Royal Navy]] destroyer {{HMS|Chieftain|R36|6}} and ran aground at [[Bat Galim]], Haifa on 27 February 1947. The crew and passengers, some of whom were injured, were arrested and deported to Cyprus.<ref>{{cite book |last=Eliav |first=Arie L |author-link=Aryeh Eliav |title=The Voyage of the Ulua |publisher=[[Funk & Wagnalls]] }}</ref>

===Notes===
{{reflist|group=Note}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite web |title=Alaska Shipwrecks, A comprehensive Accounting of Alaska Shipwrecks and Losses of Life in Alaskan Waters of Alaska Shipwrecks|url=https://alaskashipwreck.com/shipwrecks-a-z/alaska-shipwrecks-e/ |website=Alaska Shipwrecks |publisher=Alaskashipwreck.com |access-date=15 November 2021}}
* {{cite web|title=U.S. Coast Guard General Order No.1|url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/docs/1915USCG_GO1.pdf|work=Historic Documents & Publications|publisher=U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office|access-date=2 February 2014}}
* {{cite web|title=Record of Movements, Vessels of the United States Coast Guard, 1790–December 31, 1933|publisher=U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Transportation|url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/RecordofMovements.pdf}}
*{{cite news|title=Two Babies Missing as Pan-American Clipper Dives into Puerto Rica Bay|url=http://www.webstart.com/jed/house/NC15376/materials/boston-article-globe-herald-nc15376.pdf|access-date=27 March 2017|publisher=Boston Globe-Herald|date=3 October 1941}}
* {{cite web|title=''Unalga'', 1912|url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/Unalga_1946.pdf|work=Cutters, Craft & U.S. Coast Guard-Manned Army & Navy Vessels|publisher=U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office|access-date=6 April 2014}}
* {{cite book|title=Register of the officers, vessels and stations of the United States Coast Guard, January 1, 1917|year=1917|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}
* {{cite book|last=Canney|first=Donald L.|title=U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790–1935|year=1995|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-1-55750-101-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Robert Irwin|year=1987|title=Guardians of the Sea, History of the United States Coast Guard, 1915 to the Present|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-0-87021-720-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/guardiansofseahi00john}}
* {{cite book|last=King|first=Irving H.|title=The Coast Guard Expands, 1865–1915: New Roles, New Frontiers|year=1996|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-1-55750-458-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/coastguardexpand0000king}}
* {{cite book|last=Kroll|first=C. Douglas|title=Commodore Ellsworth P. Bertholf: First Commandant of the Coast Guard|year=2002|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-1-55750-474-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Larzelere|first=Alex|year=2003|title=The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-1-55750-476-0}}
* {{cite web|last=Noble (1990)|first=Dennis L.|title=Historical Register U.S. Revenue Cutter Service Officers, 1790–1914|url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/USRCSHistoricalRegister.pdf|work=Coast Guard Personnel|publisher=U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office|access-date=24 September 2013}}
* {{cite book|last=Strobridge|first=Truman R. and Dennis L. Noble|year=1999|title=Alaska and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, 1867–1915|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-1-55750-845-4}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite web|last=Noble|first=Dennis L.|title=Fog, Men, and Cutters: A Short History of the Bering Sea Patrol|url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/BeringSea.asp|work=Historic Documents & Publications|publisher=U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office|access-date=23 March 2014}}
* * {{cite web|last=Donnelley|first=James E.|title=''Crash of the Dominican Clipper, NC15376'', 1941|url=http://www.webstart.com/jed/house/NC15376/}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline|Unalga (ship, 1912)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unalga (1912)}}
[[Category:1912 ships]]
[[Category:Jewish immigrant ships]]
[[Category:Ships built in Newport News, Virginia]]
[[Category:Ships of the United States Revenue Cutter Service]]
[[Category:Ships of the United States Coast Guard]]
[[Category:Steamships of the United States]]