AGRs: AMERICA'S FORGOTTEN COLD WAR SKYWATCHERS

Sea Classics, Jan 2009 by McLaren, Robert

Completing an early-warning ring of radar sites around the United States in the pre-satellite Cold-War era was a fleet of 16 specially modified Navy-manned Liberty ships spotted in mid-ocean to alert America's East and West Coasts of impending air attack

As the cold war tensions grew between the United States and the Soviet Union in the mid1950s, American officials felt the United States and Canada were vulnerable to air attack from over the North Pole. Their recommendations were to build a Distant Early Warning Line (DEW), across the Arctic border.

The Bell Telephone Company was given the task to build the line. The Long Distance Lanes were from AT&T, Bell Laboratories, and military and civilian airlifts began building the line in 1954. The line was to consist of 63 radar and communication sites along 3000-mi above the Arctic Circle from Alaska to Baffin Island, opposite Greenland in the Atlantic Ocean. The DEW Lane was ready and in operation on 31 July 1957 and turned over to the United States Air Force for operation and maintenance.

The United States Navy and World War II merchant ships solved the question of how to protect the East and West Coasts from air attacks. The Radar Picket Ships came to be that protection.

During WWII, 18 shipyards from Maine to Washington along the three coasts of the United States were building Liberty ships and a variety of other ships of every class and size. Two shipyards in particular are of note. The JA Jones Construction Company operated two yards, one in Brunswick, Georgia, and the other in Panama City, Florida, named after Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, known as the Wainwright Yard. The other shipyard was the New England Shipyard of Portland, Maine.

During the latter part of 1944 and early 1945, the two yards were requested to modify the standard liberty ship EC2-S-C1. This modification was to construct heavy lift cargo gear and build larger cargo hatches to accommodate shipment overseas of boxed aircraft. The new classification became the Z-EC2-S-C5, also known as the four-hatch Liberty ship. The ships still maintained the standard 441-ft length, a beam of 56-ft and 2500-hp triple expansion engine. Each ship had two 3-in/50-cal guns. A total of 16 Wainwright-built four-hatch Liberty ships served at the end of the war and into peacetime service for a short time only to be placed in the National Reserve Fleet Anchorages.

The first Liberty ship to be acquired by the US Navy and to have installed highly sensitive radar gear to enable her to detect, track, and report any aircraft penetrating the continental United States was the SS James Squires. Squires had been launched 8 May 1945 and sailed for the Waterman Steamship Company until 5 October 1945 when she was placed in the James River Reserve Fleet Anchorage. She was acquired by the Navy in 1954 and converted at the Charleston Naval Shipyard, to become the YAGR-I and renamed the USS Guardian. She was attached to the Eastern Continental Air Defense Command. Guardian was homeported at Newport, Rhode Island. The ship also took part in ASW exercises with both American and Canadian Naval operations from Newport to Key West, Florida.

All 16 ships were originally classed as YAGR, but on 28 September 1958, the ships were re-classified as AGR.

USS LOOKOUT (AGR-?2)

Was launched as the SS Claude B. Kitchin on 5 April 1945 and was placed in lay-up. She was acquired by the Navy on 13 August 1954, converted at the Charleston Naval Shipyard, commissioned on 5 March 1955 and renamed USS Lookout. She operated in the Atlantic Ocean from her home port of Newport, Rhode Island, for 10-yrs. The USS Lookout was decommissioned at Bayonne, New Jersey, struck from the Navy Register 1 September 1965, and placed in the Hudson River Reserve Fleet.

USS SKYWATCHER (AGR-3)

The SS Rafael R. Rivera was launched on 16 January 1945 and operated by the States Marine Lines Corporation until the Navy acquired her on 20 September 1954. The Rivera was taken to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for conversion and renamed, USS Skywatcher. She operated from the Davisville, Rhode Island, port until 1 April 1965 when she was struck from the Navy Register and laid up at the Hudson River Reserve Fleet until 23 December 1970, when sold to the Dawood Corporation, Inc. of Karachi for scrapping.

USS SEARCHER (AGR-?4)

The SS James W. Wheeler was launched on 23 January 1945 and delivered to the Alcoa Steamship Company. The ship also sailed for the Calmar Steamship Company. The Wheeler was acquired by the Navy on 15 September 1954, converted at the Charleston Naval Shipyard in South Carolina and renamed USS Searcher (YAGR-4). The Searcher reported to Newport, Rhode Island, to start her mission. On 3 November 1955, 152-mi off the coast off New Jersey, a fire broke out in the engine room that took the lives of three crew members and critically burned two others. Several crew members were treated for lesssevere burns aboard the United States Coast Guard Cutter Mgham which was designated On Scene Commander of the Sea and Air Operation. The blaze started at 0600 and burned for 6-hrs before being extinguished with the aid of the destroyer USS Hailey (DD-556), attack transport USS Capricomus (AKA-57), Coast Guard ocean-going tug Tamaaroa and the US Navy fleet tug Nipmuc (ATF-157). The Searcher was towed to the New York Navy Yard for Repairs and reported back for duty. She operated for 60-days during the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis. On I July 1965 she was struck from the Navy Register and laid up at the Hudson River Reserve Fleet. On 7 August 1970, the USS Searcher was sold to the North American Melting Company of Wilmington, Delaware, for scrapping.