USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77)

Escanaba before World War II
History
United States
Name:	USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77)
Namesake:	Escanaba, Michigan
Ordered:	10 November 1931
Builder:	Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan
Launched:	17 September 1932
Commissioned:	23 November 1932
Fate:	Sunk by torpedo or mine, 13 June 1943
General characteristics
Class and type:	"A" class cutter
Displacement:	1,005 long tons (1,021 t)
Length:	165 ft (50 m)
Beam:	36 ft (11 m)
Draft:	12 ft (3.7 m)
Speed:	12.8 kn (23.7 km/h; 14.7 mph)
Range:	5,079 mi (8,174 km)
Complement:	105
Armament:	2 × 3"/50; 2 × 20mm/80 (single mount); 2 × depth charge tracks; 4 × "Y" guns; 2 × mousetraps

The USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77) was an 165 ft (50 m) "A" type United States Coast Guard cutter stationed on the Great Lakes from her commissioning in 1932 until the start of U.S. military involvement in World War II in 1941. With the outbreak of war, Escanaba redeployed to participate in the Battle of the Atlantic, during the course of which she was ultimately lost with nearly all hands. Struck by either a torpedo or mine in the early morning of 13 June 1943, while serving as a convoy escort, Escanaba suffered a fiery explosion and sank within minutes, leaving only two survivors and one body out of her 105-man crew to be found on the surface by rescuers.

Escanaba was built at Bay City, Michigan by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company with contract for her construction signed 10 November 1931 at a cost of $525,550. She was one of six 165 ft (50 m) "A" type cutters designed as a light icebreaker and her type were the first Coast Guard cutters to have a geared-turbine drive. The double-reduction DeLaval geared-turbine was powered by two Babcock & Wilcox main boilers which produced 1500 shaft horsepower. The ship carried 41500 gallons of oil to fire her boilers.

Escanaba, named for the city and river in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, was built at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan in 1932. The six cutters of her class were designed primarily for light ice breaking, rescue, and law enforcement duties. She was commissioned on November 23, 1932 in Grand Haven, Michigan, which would be her permanent station and home port until she was redeployed to the East Coast for combat duty in the Second World War. Escanaba's primary, pre-war missions were ice breaking and search and rescue on the Great Lakes, which caused her to become well known throughout the region and a beloved part of her home port's community. During this period, from 1932 to 1934, future USCG Commandant Edwin J. Roland served aboard Escanaba as gunnery officer and navigator.