In reviewing the newly donated photo collection of George Perley Morse, CO of SC 227, I came across a nice shot of the chaser in winter, heading through broken ice. The location isn't indicated on the photo, but a good guess might be somewhere near New London, in the winter of 1918.

It was one of the coldest winters ever in New London, and it's what the new chaser crews had to contend with during standardization trials prior to being assigned to overseas duties. Lt. George S. Dole (my great uncle, whose tours of duty on the chasers are described in my book), wrote home about running through a snowstorm on the first day and making it to Block Island, then about ice in day two:
At a distance of about 25 miles, we encountered a considerable ice field off Race Rock light. The ice was about 2 ft. thick and the cakes were large. The tide was however with us and managed to get through the ice in about three hours. The ice in the harbor was not so bad. We got to New London about 3 p.m. We damaged the bows some and were hauled out of the water two days ago and the bows sheathed with iron. The boat is no ice-breaker even now, but will be able to squirm through thin ice without trouble.
Hard to imagine being on a chaser in sub-zero weather, moving through sheets of ice and trying to navigate through snowstorms.
— Todd Woofenden, editor
Added recently in The Hull Numbers Collection:
- A photo of SC 239, I think post-war, next to a sea plane. If anyone can identify the sea plane, please let me know. Not my area of expertise. [Update: Tom Ruprecht tells me that this is a Curtiss HS-2L.]
- A shot of SC 64, SC 63, and SC 330, I suspect at Guantanamo. Thanks to Donna Rutterbush for submitting these photos.