One of the more interesting chaser-related items this month was hearing from Paul Harvey of the Coolspring Power Museum, in Coolspring, PA. They have a restored, working example of a Standard Motor Construction Company auxiliary engine of the type used on the chasers.
The auxiliary engine provided electric power, and also charged the air tanks that were used for the air-start main engines. Photos of the museum's engine are posted to the site.
Now, to find an example of the Standard 220!
Labor Day carries a family connection for me, and a subchaser connection, as Lt. Dole (my great uncle, CO of SC 93 and later of SC 354) died on 06 September 1928, at the family's fishing camp in Wayne, Maine. Each year I look forward to a visit there, and to the cemetery in Wayne where he is buried. He was quite a character.
Best wishes to everyone for an enjoyable holiday weekend.
Todd Woofenden, editor
The Bombardment of Durazzo
Recently added to the photo set of the bombardment of Durazzo harbor on 2 October 1918 is an excellent photograph of one of the four-stack warships underway . Most of the known photos of this engagement are taken from some distance, so this relatively close-up view is especially interesting. Thanks to David Imisson, whose grandfather was a Royal Navy submariner in WWI, for submitting the photo scan to The Subchaser Archives.
Standard Auxiliary Engine
An exiting report recently from the Coolspring Power Museum in Coolspring, Pennsylvania: They have a restored, working example of the Standard Auxiliary engine, the type used on the chasers for generating electricity and providing compressed air for starting the main engines. (I need to add this to my list of places to visit!) See photos of the engine, recently posted.
Austrian Warships
Recently posted is another set of photos from the SC 248 set, this group showing the Austrian warships SMS Radetsky and SMS Zrinyi. These are two ships that were turned over after the war, initially to chaser crews, prior to the arrival of larger Allied vessels.