Researching Robert

Minesweeper USS Heron

By Jim Potter

During the Armistice of 1918, while two million doughboys and bluejackets were anxious to return to the United States from Europe and to be demobilized, Robert Parks was preparing to help clear a portion of the North Sea Mine Barrage, a 230-mile-long chain of 70,000 naval mines between Scotland and Norway completed by Great Britain’s Royal Navy and the United States Navy. The barrage had been effective at limiting the number of German U-Boats seeking passage to the Atlantic. On September 25, 1918, it’s presumed, the infamous German minelayer submarine U-156, responsible for sinking the USS San Diego, met its fate in the North Sea Mine Barrage while attempting to maneuver its way through the elaborate minefield.

Since the United States Navy had laid 56,000 naval mines in the North Sea between June through October 1918, they had a Herculean task of clearing the fields prior to the winter of 1919. At the same time, the Royal Navy was clearing the mines they had laid. Both countries understood that time was of the essence. Winter weather, with its severe and relentless gales, would snap mooring cables drifting thousands of live explosives into critical international shipping lanes.

The US Navy assigned vessels to clear the colossal mine barrage, knowing the men would face constant peril from exploding magnetic and contact mines, heavy fog, and rough North Sea storms. I recall Robert Parks’ letter sent from New London when he wrote his father prior to his duty of protecting coastal waters on a subchaser. Robert told his parents that he didn’t intend to return home until the job was done. I wonder, if in the spring of 1919, he was still eager for a dangerous deployment after the fighting had stopped. Was Robert interested in more adventure? Whether he wanted to ship out or not, he became a member of a team assigned to clear a mind-boggling number of naval mines in the North Sea. The grueling expedition would test every nerve in his body.

While the minesweeper USS Heron was at the Boston Navy Yard during March 1919, being refitted for locating and destroying naval mines under harsh conditions, Parks was assigned to the ship as one of two or three radio operators. Two weeks later, on the morning of April 15, 1919, the Heron departed from Provincetown, Massachusetts, under the command of Lieutenant Karl Rundquist, bound for Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland. The Heron and three other minesweepers, USS Auk, USS Sanderling, and USS Oriole, took the Great Circle route well north of the Azores, made their way around the northern tip of Ireland, and to Kirkwall from the west, arriving April 29. The Heron was part of an armada of ships, especially their squadron of minesweepers that “gobs” (nickname for American sailors) called the “Bird Fleet,” because the ships were christened with the titles of various birds. Upon arrival at Kirkwall, the Heron‘s crew observed their flagship, USS Black Hawk, a destroyer tender and primary supply ship for the Mine Force’s barrage clearance. It would provide repair facilities, provisions, and administrative headquarters for the entire fleet, including minesweepers, subchasers, and auxiliary vessels operating out of Kirkwall.

The American Minesweeping Detachment, commanded by Rear Admiral Joseph Strauss, used eighty-four ships to clear the North Sea minefields. The fleet included thirty-six Lapwing-class minesweepers, including the USS Heron, twenty-four converted wooden subchasers, and various trawlers, tugs, and repair vehicles.

Kirkwall served as the primary operational base for the US Navy’s Mine Force during the massive effort to sweep the North Sea Mine Barrage. The population of the remote location totaled 3,700 inhabitants prior to the influx of American naval personnel, when the town’s population more than doubled. The sailors spent their off-duty hours exploring the town and socializing with Scottish residents. As soon as Robert, the lover of old buildings and cathedrals, could get an opportunity to explore Kirkwall, he would have visited the ruins of the Earl’s Palace, the Bishop’s Palace, and the St. Magnus Cathedral that the Vikings began building in 1137. If Robert had a desire to worship at the church, it was open to all.

Like Parks’ time in Cambridge, when he was at Harvard’s Naval Radio School, the American YMCA in Kirkwall set up two large, prefabricated wooden structures called “huts.” They were dedicated recreational facilities, offering coffee, hot meals, games, and places to write home. Besides playing baseball, soccer, and organized athletic events, the YMCA hosted movie screenings, and put on musical and theatrical performances. No doubt, the support of the YMCA helped sailors overcome their anxiety caused by their homesickness, and tedious, nerve-racking work.

Parks and his comrades understood that their mission of clearing the North Sea of thousands of mines would most likely be deadly, but they may have been surprised that their first fatality occurred only two weeks after arriving at Kirkwall. On May 14, 1919, Commander Lt. Frank Bruce of the USS Bobolink was killed by a mine explosion while he was trying to clear a mine entangled in the ship’s gear. *FN*

The naval mine fields held up to eighteen rows of Mark VI mines concealed at depths of forty-five feet, eighty feet, 160 feet, and 240 feet deep, *a* strung together with piano wire. Each of the horned steel spheres contained three hundred pounds of TNT. The sensitive electrical antennas of the Mark VI mines caused frequent premature explosions, resulting in significant damage to sweeping vessels and tragic loss of life.

Even though the US Navy had documentation of the location of their mines, the work was incredibly dangerous, ten times more difficult than laying mines. “Tides, storms, and shifting of the ocean bed could have caused the mines to move from their original location.” *b*  The biggest risk to the minesweepers and subchasers was when the mines were unstable. Some of the mines broke loose from the ocean floor on their own, but most remained tethered in place until their wires were cut by a sweep cable that ran between two minesweepers.

The primary role of the subchasers was to follow the minesweepers and when mines surfaced, have their sharpshooters detonate or sink them by firing rifles from their decks. The designated riflemen would carefully maneuver close enough to hit the mine’s sensitive copper horns or detonate its explosive charge with accurate rifle fire. If hitting the horns didn’t detonate the mine, the marksman aimed to puncture its buoyant metal casing so it would fill with water and safely sink to the bottom.

Radio operators, like Robert Parks, were primarily responsible for handling naval communications, receiving positional coordinates, and coordinating sweep formations with other ships. They also monitored wireless traffic calls, weather updates, and reports of loose or floating mines sighted by other vessels.

Since the mines to be swept were often a good distance from Kirkwall, the squadrons would stay in the field from fifteen to twenty days at a time and then dock at the port for several days as a “rest period.” The time was necessary for overhauling machinery, taking on oil, water, sweeping gear and other essentials. It was also an opportunity for recreation on land.*c*  

One of the physical differences most noticeable to American sailors stationed in Kirkwell was the mid-summer twilight between mid-May and mid-July, around the summer solstice, where it never truly got dark. Locals, speaking of it in their dialect, said “simmer dim” when the light remained bright enough to read a newspaper outside under the night sky.

On June 21, 1919, approximately two months after the USS Huron arrived at Kirkwall, Parks learned of the alarming call for assistance from the Royal Navy at Scapa Flow, the massive natural harbor about fifteen nautical miles away. German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter had ordered the deliberate scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet of seventy-four ships (including eleven battleships, five battlecruisers, eight cruisers, and fifty destroyers), interned there with their German crews.

When the emergency call dispatched British and American ships to Scapa Flow, many American sailors were at Kirkwall’s YMCA athletic field playing baseball during their rest period in port. Radio operator Parks may have been one of the sailors who was called back to his ship to respond to Scapa Flow. The Allied vessels that arrived witnessed an incredible scene. By the end of the day, fifty-two of the seventy-four German ships had been intentionally and successfully sunk.

A week later, on June 28, 1919, President Wilson signed the Treaty of Versailles to end the war and sailed for the United States the next day. Wilson had high, idealistic hopes, (but the United States Senate never ratified the treaty because a coalition of senators was concerned about losing American sovereignty to the newly formed League of Nations).

On July 4, 1919, while President Wilson was crossing the Atlantic on the USS Washington and giving an Independence Day speech to an audience of soldiers, sailors, and peace officials, the country’s ships anchored at Kirkwall were dressed in full naval bunting and signal flags. Because the grueling work of clearing the mine barrage was paused for the holiday, the crews celebrated by holding an all-fleet athletic meet on shore, featuring track and field events, baseball games, and boxing matches, followed by special holiday dinners aboard the ships. With Robert Parks’ love of baseball, I’ll bet he participated in as many ball games as possible. *FN*

While the United States was repatriating 300,000 troops a month during the summer months of 1919, were the sailors at Kirkwall wishing for a quick ticket home? Many of the men facing highly dangerous work must have felt restless and nervous every time they returned to a sea with deadly mines, their invisible enemy, just below the surface. The worst loss of life during the demining expedition occurred on July 12, 1919, when the USS Richard Bulkeley, a trawler, sank after a mine fouled its sweeping gear. When the mine detonated under her stern, seven sailors were killed and others were injured. *FN*

On July 28, 1919, three American subchasers arrived in Kirkwall after returning from a mission to Russia where they protected supply ships, provided radio communication links, and served as naval support while American and Allied ground troops were being evacuated during the Russian Civil War. It had been an incredible journey worth talking about. Subchasers, 354, 95, and 256, had departed Inverness, Scotland, on June 6, under the command of Lieutenant Junior Grade George S. Dole, crossed the Arctic Circle to Archangel, Russia, and departed that Russian port on July 13 after observing, communicating, and reporting. Since radio operator Robert Parks had crewed a subchaser for eight months off the US coast, he would have been stunned to learn that the subchasers had made the trip without repair ship support. I can visualize Parks at Kirkwall seeking out members from the northern Russian expedition so he could hear stories of what it was like.

The main body of the US Navy’s North Sea Minesweeping Detachment, including Robert Parks on the USS Heron, departed Kirkwall on October 1, 1919. The Heron had logged 106 days on the minefield and forty-seven days in port. During the entire sweeping operation, while clearing mines, about twenty vessels suffered structural or machinery damage severe enough to require extensive shipyard repairs or premature retirement from the operation. There was no estimate on the number of men who suffered ruptured eardrums from nearby mine explosions, but eleven men perished—two officers and nine enlisted sailors.

A month before departing Kirkwall, Sparks Parks advanced to a rating of Electrician First Class (Radio). *d*

On the return home, some of the ships stopped at royal dockyards at Devenport, England, before crossing the Atlantic. Instead of stopping in England, the USS Heron sailed to Brest, France, where it arrived October 20/25 and departed Oct 24/November 2. While most sailors probably dreamed of some leave time in Paris, I haven’t found any record of Parks taking the 360-mile train ride to Paris during his nine? days in port. The Heron‘s return to the United States included stops in Lisbon, Portugal, Azores, and Bermuda.

The USS Heron landed at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on November 1, 1919, where it stayed for about two weeks for refueling and reprovisioning before departing for New York on November 17. A few days later it anchored off Tompkinsville, Staten Island, before moving into postion for the official, full-dress naval review by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels in the Hudson River, New York City, on November 24.

The review was Parks’ opportunity to be in a formal ship parade. He wasn’t marching down 5th Avenue in NYC or Main Street in McPherson, Kansas, but it was an honor to salute the Secretary of the Navy from the deck of the USS Heron. President Wilson wasn’t available. He was in his private quarters at the White House in Washington, DC, bedridden and secluded from a devasting stroke he had suffered on October 2, 1919.

Parks received his honorable discharge on December 15, 1919, on the USS Hartford, in the Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina. *e* The famous Civil War sloop-of-war served there as a station ship and receiving ship. In that role, “housed over,” she acted as an administrative headquarters where recruits were processed, sailors awaited new assignments, and thousands of personnel were processed out or discharged from the Navy following the World War. After Electrician First Class, Radio Operator Robert Parks was mustered out, he returned home to McPherson County, Kansas, where he was welcomed by his parents, Henry and Lydia Parks.

*

Notes

^{*a* Todd A. Woofenden, Hunters of the Steel Sharks: The Submarine Chasers of WWI. (Bowdoinham, Maine, Signal Light Books, 2006), 149.}

*b* Woofenden, Hunters of the Steel Sharks, 147-148.

*c* Muscatine Journal (Muscatine, Iowa), July 10, 1919, 5.

^{*d* World War Service Record of Robert Walter Parks, National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri.}

*e* Service Record of Robert Parks.