page_title: USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77)
section_title: SS Dorchester rescues
hierarchical_section_title: USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77) / World War II / SS Dorchester rescues
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting of the rescue of USAT Dorchester survivors by USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77) on 3 February 1943 in the North Atlantic Ocean.
context_page_description: The USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77) was a 165 ft "A" type United States Coast Guard cutter stationed on the Great Lakes from her commissioning in 1932 until the start of U.S. military involvement in World War II in 1941. With the outbreak of war, Escanaba redeployed to participate in the Battle of the Atlantic, during the course of which she was ultimately lost with nearly all hands. Struck by either a torpedo or mine in the early morning of 13 June 1943, while serving as a convoy escort, Escanaba suffered a fiery explosion and sank within minutes, leaving only two survivors and one body out of her 105-man crew to be found on the surface by rescuers.
context_section_description: On 3 February 1943, Escanaba participated in the rescue of the survivors of the SS Dorchester, which had been torpedoed by a German submarine.  The rescue was marked by the Escanaba's historic first use of rescue swimmers clad in survival suits to aid survivors, who were too weakened by shock or hypothermia in the icy water to pull themselves up cargo nets or sea ladders to the safety and warmth of rescuers' ships, or even to hold on to ropes cast to them from the rescue vessel. By way of the lines the rescue swimmers tied around those who were having trouble helping themselves, many struggling survivors who--debilitated by the cold--would have otherwise died, were hauled aboard the Escanaba by crewmen on deck. Even those in the water who appeared to be dead were harnessed by the retrieval swimmers and pulled aboard — indeed, it was found that only 12 of the 50 apparently dead victims thus brought aboard by the retrieval teams actually turned out to be dead. The rest proved themselves to be quite alive once given the benefit of warmth, dryness, and medical attention.
  In all, Escanaba plucked 133 survivors from the water that day, only one of whom went on to die aboard the cutter after rescue.  For their work in supervising and organizing the rescue, commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Carl U. Peterson received the Legion of Merit and executive officer Lieutenant Robert H. Prause Jr., whose experiments in a tethered rubber suit off a dock at Bluie West One had paved the way for this new "retriever method," received a letter of commendation. Ship's doctor Assistant Surgeon Ralph R. Nix of the US Public Health Service also received a letter of commendation for his work saving the lives of the critically chilled survivors.  Three crew members who went "over the side" to bring in survivors, Ensign Richard A. Arrighi, Ship's Cook 2nd Class Forrest O. Rednour, and Steward's Mate 3rd Class Warren T. Deyampert, were awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for their actions in the water.  All decorations and commendations, however, were to be awarded posthumously.
caption: Escanaba rescuing the survivors of SS Dorchester in the predawn darkness of 3 February 1943.
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