Subic Bay Philippines Dive Web sites

There is certainly 1 ship wreck at Subic Bay that holds a special interest for me. She is the Lanikai. As a dive web-site she not something special, just a wooden sailboat that there is only slightly left. It is actually her life that I uncover most intriguing. Lets commence with a quote from her official record from the US Navy.Lanikai (Named to get a village on Oahu, north of Honolulu.) a schooner-rigged diesel-powered yacht built 1914 at East Oakland, Calif., taken more than from the Navy at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Islands, beneath charter from Luzon Stevedoring Co., Inc., 5 December 1941; and commissioned the same day, Lt. Kemp Tolley in command. The official record also tells us that she was 150 tons and she had a length of 87'3" and also a beam of 9'0". Her best speed was 7 knots and had a crew of 19. Her weapons had been a 3-pound cannon left more than from the Spanish-American War plus a two.30 cal. Machine gun from Planet War I. Not a lot interest in that however it does hide an fascinating story and sets the date from the turning point of her life. Discover she was commission two days just before the Pearl Harbor attack plus the get started of WWII.Lets step back and she how an California girl ends up inside a tropical world like the Discount kelly handbags Philippines and into military service. I mean California is for movie stars and may perhaps be spies. She began her life as a humble ship and like a film star born using a different name. Built as schooner Hermes in Oakland, California for Jaluit Gesellschaft of Hamburg, Germany and launched in 1914. As Hermes she sailed inside the inter-island copra trade (coconuts)inside the German held Pacific Islands until becoming interned in Hawaii at the outbreak of Planet War I.She was Commissioned as USS Hermes April 1, 1918. and spent the war as a patrol boat. Soon after the war she stayed about Pearl Harbor carrying out odd jobs till she was sold to Lanikai Fish Co. and renamed Lanikai in 1926. More than the next couple of years she was in the fishing business initial around Hawaii and then later in Alaska.Then in 1937 it occurred, ever Californian girls dream, she was "discovered" she was within a film. And not just any movie but inside the block buster Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production Hurricane, starring Jon Hall and Dorothy Lamour. It was not somewhat element either but a significant role. She was a central character within the film. Following completion on the film, Lanikai was 2012 hermes new applied as the MGM yacht. ( MGM promotional material from that time stated the Yacht belong to Sam Goldwyn.) Later she was sold and moved to the Philippines.Late in November 1941 it became apparent to the American Government that Japanese Naval and land forces were tactically deposed for major operations in Southeast Asia, but her precise destination was unknown. A large convoy was steaming south from Formosa Straits, and it was hoped that understanding the destination of those ships may well reveal Japan's intentions.On two December, President Roosevelt ordered by way of Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. H. R. Stark, that Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet Adm. T. C. Hart "charter three smaller vessels to form a defensive information and facts patrol...to observe and report by radio Japanese movements within the west China Sea and Gulf of Siam."Lanikai, which poor been observed by millions in the film "Hurricane", was one particular with the small ships chartered to learn of Japan's intentions. Fitted out at Cavite, in only two days, the schooner lay at the entrance of Manila Bay inside the early hours of 8 December (7 December east of the International Date Line) awaiting daylight to thread her way through the hazardous minefields that guarded the harbor. Tolley's orders read: "Patrol off the entrance of Camranh Bay and report the direction taken by the Japanese Fleet when it emerges." Nevertheless, at 0300 word of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor arrived Discount kelly handbags with orders to return to Manila.For years historians have held that the commissioning of the USS Lanikai was to provoke war with Japan. Admiral Tolley in his book the "Cruise of the Lanikai" supplies a lot more evidence to support this position. It really is now normally accepted that the original intent in the President was to create an incident that would raise public outrage against Japan. 3 little vessels not of military developed were to comply with the Japanese navy and hopefully annoy them to the point that the Japanese would attack. The sinking of a US Navy ship would constitute an act of war against the US by Japan. It was hope that public outcry would propel the US into the war, substantially like the Maine within the Spanish-American war.The Lanikai did provide an active role in the war plus the book "Cruise of the Lanikai" is a nicely written first hand account.Soon after peace returned, Lanikai was brought back for the Philippines for later return to her owner. Having said that, while anchored in Subic Bay, Lanikai sank through a typhoon. She may perhaps rest in Subic Bay but her spirit remains in the movie plus the book