The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Robert J. Cressman
Reuben James (DD 245) aground off Lobos Cay, Cuba, 30 November 1939. (NA, 80-G-391561)
29 Wednesday
Submarine S 38 (SS 143) is damaged by explosion of after storage battery, Olongapo, P.I.; four sailors suffer injuries.
U.S. freighter Nishmaha is detained by French authorities at Marseilles; her cargo (cotton, paraffin, and beef casings) is held pending the decision of the Contraband Committee in London (see 8 December).
German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee reembarks from accompanying tanker Altmark all British merchant marine officers from the six ships that the “pocket battleship” has sunk up to that point. The officers are to be taken back to Germany; the crewmen remain imprisoned on board Altmark (see 16 February 1940).
30 Thursday
USSR invades Finland, which will receive not only American aid but British and French as well; the Finnish struggle (albeit against an initially inept Soviet invasion force) arouses the admiration of many (see 14 December).
Destroyer Reuben James (DD 245) is damaged by grounding, Lobos Cay, Cuba.
U.S. freighter Extavia, with cargo destined for Istanbul, Turkey, and the Piraeus, Greece, is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities (see 14 December).
DECEMBER
1 Friday
Submarine Division 14 arrives on the Asiatic Station, the first modern reinforcement received by the Asiatic Fleet in many years. Submarines in the division are Pickerel (SS 177) (flag), Porpoise (SS 172), Perch (SS 176), Pike (SS 173), Tarpon (SS 175), and Permit (SS 178).
2 Saturday
German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee stops British freighter Doric Star; the warship then torpedoes, shells, and sinks the merchantman at 19°15′S, 05°05′E.
3 Sunday
German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee stops British freighter Tairoa; the warship then sinks the merchantman at 21°30′S, 03°00′E. Ironically, the same day Commodore Commanding South Atlantic Station, Commodore Henry H. Harwood, RN, orders his three cruisers to concentrate off the River Plate estuary, between Uruguay and Argentina, on 12 December (see 13 December).
4 Monday
U.S. freighter Examiner, detained at Gibraltar since 17 November by British authorities, is released.
5 Tuesday
U.S. freighter Exochorda is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities, who maintain that the 45 tons of tin plate among the vessel’s cargo is contraband. The latter maintain that the cargo must be taken to Marseilles and unloaded there; the manager of the shipping firm (Export Lines) maintains that the ship cannot proceed to a belligerent port without violating the Neutrality Act. Until the impasse is resolved, the merchantman remains at Gibraltar (see 13 December). Freighter Ex-mouth, detained at Gibraltar since 22 November, is released.
U.S. freighter Yaka is detained at the Downs by British authorities (see 6 December).
6 Wednesday
Light cruiser Omaha (CL 4) arrives at Havana, Cuba, from Guantánamo Bay, to take on board the remains of J. Butler Wright, the late U.S. Ambassador to Cuba who died 4 December in Havana. Omaha will proceed to Washington, D.C., via Quantico, Virginia (see 11 December).
U.S. freighter Yaka, detained at the Downs by British authorities the previous day, is released.
German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee refuels from tanker Altmark in South Atlantic, roughly 1,700 miles from Montevideo, Uruguay.
7 Thursday
Rear Admiral George J. Meyers, Commander Base Force, dies of coronary thrombosis on board his flagship, auxiliary Argonne (AG 31), San Pedro, California (see 28 December).
U.S. freighters Effingham and Winston Salem, detained at Ramsgate, England, by British authorities since 27 November and 28 November, respectively, are released; the latter proceeds to Rotterdam, Holland, where her cargo of 2,782 bales of cotton is seized by British authorities.
U.S. freighter Exmoor is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities (see 15 December).
German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee stops and sinks British freighter Streonshalh at 25°01′S, 27°50′W.
8 Friday
Duties of the former Technical Division, Office of Naval Operations, concerned with matters of research and invention, are transferred to Office of the Technical Aide to the Secretary of the Navy.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull urges U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in the United Kingdom Herschel V. Johnson to urge the Contraband Commission in London to release U.S. freighter Nishmaha (then at Marseilles, France). Nishmaha has been held 25 days, “a most unreasonable detention” (see 19 December).
U.S. Consul General in Hamburg Wilbur Keblinger reports that German prize control authorities are detaining more than 125 neutral ships in German ports: at least 40 Swedish, 12 Danish, five Norwegian, 40 Finnish, 14 Estonian, and 14 Latvian, comprising practically all neutral vessels clearing Baltic or Scandinavian ports with cargoes of goods that are on the German contraband list (see 27 December).
9 Saturday
U.S. freighter Explorer is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities (see 23 December).
German tanker Nordmeer sails from Curaçao, N.W.I. (see 5 January 1940).
10 Sunday
U.S. freighter Steel Engineer is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities (see 11 December).
11 Monday
Light cruiser Omaha (CL4) arrives at the Washington Navy Yard, bearing the remains of late U.S. Ambassador to Cuba J. Butler Wright, who died at his diplomatic post in Havana on 4 December.
U.S. freighter Azalea City, detained at London by British authorities since 27 November, is released to proceed to Antwerp and Rotterdam, Holland, after certain cargo is detained for guaranties. Freighter Steel Engineer, detained at Gibraltar by the British the previous day, is released.
13 Wednesday
British heavy cruiser HMS Exeter, light cruiser HMS Ajax, and New Zealand light cruiser HMNZS Achilles (Commodore Henry H. Harwood, RN, flag in Ajax), which had rendezvoused the previous day, engage German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Plate, between Uruguay and Argentina. The “pocket battleship” knocks Exeter out of action and damages her consorts, but is compelled by the damage inflicted by her lesser-gunned adversaries (which are fought, as First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill writes, “with the utmost resolution and skill”) to retire toward Montevideo, Uruguay. Exeter, badly damaged, limps to the Falkland Islands (see 14 December ff.).12
U.S. freighter Exochorda, detained at Gibraltar by British authorities since 5 December, is released.
14 Thursday
League of Nations, in response to the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November, expels the USSR from its membership.
Heavy cruiser Vincennes (CA 44) and destroyers Evans (DD 78) and Twiggs (DD 127) (the latter destroyer having shadowed British destroyer HMS Hereward a short time before) trail Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth, which is prowling the Gulf of Yucatan waiting for the emergence of German passenger liner Columbus.13
German freighter Arauca departs Vera Cruz, Mexico, followed subsequently by passenger liner Columbus, the third largest ship in Germany’s merchant marine. Destroyer Benham (DD 397), soon joined by destroyer Lang (DD 399), trails Columbus. A succession of U.S. ships will, over ensuing days, send out plain-language