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History of Weapons and Live Fire on the Great Lakes
by Dr. William H. Thiesen
U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian
War of 1812/Rush-Bagot Treaty
The recorded history of the Great Lakes has been one replete with arms and weapons held by civilian and military personnel of Canada and the United States.
During the War of 1812 several naval engagements between British and U.S. naval forces took place and the U.S. Navy hired shipbuilders to build warships at Sacketts Harbor, New York, to provide the vessels necessary to carry on these naval campaigns. At the conclusion of hostilities, British and American governments exchanged diplomatic notes commonly known as the Rush-Bagot Treaty (1817) in which they agreed to limit their maritime forces on the Great Lakes to a few vessels not to exceed "100 tons burden and armed with one 18-pound cannon."
In Canada, the Provincial Marine, which never disappeared completely, evolved into the waterborne arm of the Canadian Militia and by 1855, provision was made for the Marine's personnel to be trained in ". . . the use of small arms, as in the management of gunboats and vessels and the working of the great guns aboard vessels." 1
Weapons on the Great Lakes
There has been an armed presence on the Great Lakes since the early nineteenth-century. In the United States, a succession of U.S. revenue cutters patrolled the Great Lakes before the Civil War.
Typically, these vessels carried small arms, such as rifles and handguns, and the crew periodically trained in the use of these weapons. These cutters included the USRSC BENJAMIN RUSH and later the ERIE. It's reputed that one of these early cutters carried cannon captured from General Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga. In his book on the early Revenue Service cutters, author Don Canney indicates that USRSC ERIE carried an eighteen-pound pivot gun. It can only be assumed that the gun crews for such weapons received regular training.2
The U.S. Navy reinstated its presence on the Great Lakes in the 1840s after the British government armed two steamers due to the eruption of Canadian rebellion. In 1844, the Navy's iron gunboat USS MICHIGAN began serving out of Erie, Pennsylvania. Like the earlier Revenue Service cutters, it was equipped with small arms and an eighteen-pound gun. The MICHIGAN provided an armed presence in the Great Lakes through the Civil War and up to the gunboat's decommissioning in 1912.3
World War I Patrols and Prohibition
Arms and weapons on the Great Lakes remained prevalent during World War I and in its aftermath. After the decommissioning of USS MICHIGAN, the Navy began to station greater numbers of armed naval assets in the Great Lakes region. In 1911, the Navy acquired the steamer EASTLAND, equipped it with three- and four-inch ordnance and renamed it the USS WILMETTE. This vessel served out of Chicago through World War I and, in 1921, used its main guns to sink the trophy U-boat UC-97 off of the coast of Illinois. The gunboat WILMETTE also served out of Chicago during World War II. In addition to the WILMETTE, the Navy supported a small fleet of patrol boats for securing the inland waterways and the U.S. Army posted armed guards to secure the American locks at Sault Ste. Marie from sabotage.4
During World War I and the interwar period, there continued to be an armed Coast Guard presence on the Great Lakes. The Coast Guard armed the cutters MACKINAC and MORILL to patrol the St. Mary's and Detroit rivers for would be saboteurs. During Prohibition, the Coast Guard armed its patrol craft with small weapons in its campaign against the smuggling of illicit liquor from Canada. High speed rum running boats were often heavily armed and, on more than one occasion, the Coast Guard and state police forces had running gun battles with these high speed smugglers.5
World War II Warships on the Great Lakes
During World War II, the Great Lakes experienced a major build-up in naval armaments. Local shipbuilders located throughout the Great Lakes and inland waterways contributed greatly to the war effort by producing large numbers of relatively small naval vessels, including submarines, destroyer escorts, submarine chasers, supply vessels, minesweepers and patrol craft. In addition, naval training took place on board warships stationed in the Great Lakes. For example, fully armed naval aircraft would take off from Glenview Naval Air Station in Illinois and practice take offs and landings on board the small aircraft carriers SABLE and WOLVERINE. President George Bush, Sr., received his carrier training at this base and President Gerald Ford served there as well.6
The Navy's Cold War Fleet on the Great Lakes
After World War II, the U.S. Navy stationed Naval Reserve vessels on the Great Lakes, which became known as the "Corn Belt Fleet." Between 1950 and 1970, the Navy deployed the Great Lakes Reserve Destroyer Division Fleet of destroyer escorts and patrol craft. These craft were located at ports, such as Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and they included the USS DANIEL A. JOY (DE-585), USS PARLE (DE-708), USS PORTAGE (PCE-902), USS HAVRE (PCE-877), and USS AMHERST (PCE(R)-853). And from 1972 to 1976 the Navy deployed to the Great Lakes the Coastal River Division (CRD) 21, which consisted of fast patrol boats and ASHVILLE-Class patrol gunboats.7
Live Fire on the Great Lakes
Records documenting live fire exercises that date before World War II are difficult to locate; however, it most likely took place whenever possible to hone the skills of Coast Guard and Navy crews serving in cutters, patrol craft and small warships. During World War II, the Navy established a gunnery range in the middle of Lake Michigan. At the time, this area was well-known to mariners who plied the Great Lakes. During the mid-1950s and the 1960s, the Navy's "Corn Belt Fleet" gave its crews gunnery practice using the same range maintained by the Navy during World War II. By May 1970 the last of the Corn Belt Fleet, the USS PARLE, was retired and though the gunnery range remained on the charts, it became dormant until the formation of Coastal River Division 21. In 1972, CRD 21 reopened the gunnery range for practice and an appropriate Notice to Mariners (NOM) was published specifically warning mariners about use of the range by the naval vessels of CRD 21. CRD 21 discontinued use of the gunnery range in 1976, when the unit was disbanded.8
The armed forces have also been stationed on the shores of the Great Lakes for well over a century and state police forces, the Navy, Coast Guard (and its predecessor services) and other branches of the military have required their personnel to receive live fire training in the Great Lakes area whenever possible. Small arms training had been conducted informally through the nineteenth century by the Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service. Land-based live fire ranges began to be established in the Great Lakes region in the early twentieth century. For example, in 1911 the U.S. Navy established the North Chicago-based Great Lakes Naval Training Station and provided small weapons training for its recruits at a range on base. In 1907, the state of Ohio appropriated $25,000 for the construction of Camp Perry on a mile-long stretch of shoreline along Lake Erie. Since that year Camp Perry has supported annual marksmanship tournaments in which Coast Guard personnel participate. The Coast Guard also established its own ranges, such as the one at Grand Haven, Michigan, where its personnel learned how to handle handguns, rifles and small machine guns. The knowledge and skill gained by Coast Guard personnel from live fire training has contributed significantly to the service's standards of marksmanship and safety.9
Today's Weapons and Live Fire Training on the Great Lakes
There are no longer any active warships stationed on the Great Lakes; however, the Coast Guard began arming its forty-one foot utility boats for law enforcement purposes in the early 1980s. This armament was limited to the M60 machine gun and smaller arms. Recently, the older M60 was replaced by the more modern M240B as the main armament for Coast Guard patrol and support craft. In addition, larger Coast Guard vessels such as buoy tenders and the ice breaker MACKINAW are equipped to support fifty caliber machine guns. These weapons require an experienced crew to operate them; hence, there will always be a need for live fire training as long as the Coast Guard's mission requires their use.10
FOOTNOTES
1) Web site: http://www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca/usque-ad-mare/chapter02-02_e.htm
2) Donald L. Canney, U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935 (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1995).
3) Bradley A. Rodgers, Guardian of the Great Lakes: The U.S. Paddle Frigate Michigan (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1999).
4) Alex R. Larzlere, The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story (Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2003).
5) T. Michael O'Brien, Guardians of the Eighth Sea: A History of the U.S. Coast Guard on the Great Lakes (Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1976).
6) George J. Joachim, Iron Fleet: The Great Lakes in World War II (Wayne State University Press: Detroit, Mich., 1994). Also see web site: http://www.navsource.org/
7) Web site: https://www.piersystem.com/logon/www.warboats.org/stoner3.htm
8) Web site: http://home.wi.rr.com/ussdesmoines/sheboygan.html
9) William R. Wells, II, Shots That Hit: A Study of U.S. Coast Guard Marksmanship, 1790-1985 (U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office: Washington, DC, 1993).
10) Web site: http://www.uscg.mil/datasheet/index.shtm
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