SS Buskø Buskø was a small Norwegian sealer , seized by the U . S . Coast Guard in East Greenland in September 1941 , before U . S . entry into the war . She was bringing supplies and rotating personnel for the Norwegian hunting stations there . The episode is notable not only for the uproar in the American press when Buskø was towed to Boston as a prize , but also because it is frequently but incorrectly listed as being the first American capture of an enemy surface vessel in the war . Finally , President Franklin D . Roosevelt had frequently asserted that Germany would attempt to establish a foothold in Greenland , and the way this episode was presented seemed to bear him out . The affair was a notable early initiative in the North Atlantic weather war . The Norwegian expedition . By agreement with Denmark , Norway maintained several hunting , weather , and radio stations along the East Greenland coast , Myggbukta og Torgilsbu being the most important . After the German conquest of Norway , resupply of these stations became problematic because the Royal Navy treated all ships arriving from Norway as hostile . In 1940 season , Norway managed to send two relief vessels , " Veslekari " and " Ringsel " , to Greenland . Veslekari was seized by Britain . A Danish weather expedition aboard " Furenak " was also seized . German intelligence ( Abwehr ) took an interest in these expeditions ( " Furenak " ) because of a need to obtain weather reports from Greenland for U - Boat and bombing missions . In 1941 , seven Norwegians remained on the coast , and Arctic - expansion proponents in Norway eager to reverse the 1933 International Court of Justice award of the area to Denmark seized on the hunters ’ plight as an opportunity to outfit a new expedition . With the permission of Vidkun Quisling ' s government loyal to Germany , the 100 - foot , 60 - ton sealing vessel " Buskø " of Aalesund with a crew of ten was leased , and ten hunters and technicians hired . The expedition was led by Hallvard Devoll , an Arctic expert who had earlier led the Norwegian occupation of East Greenland , in 1931 . Just before Buskø ’ s departure on 29 August , German officers demanded that a Norwegian weather observer and telegraphist with German ties , Jacob Bradley , be taken aboard . This was allowed under protest . Bradley was deposited with his equipment at 7510N 2025W ( Peters Bay , Ardencaple Fjord ) on Hochstetter Foreland on 2 September 1941 . He lodged with two other hunters in a hunting cabin and did not begin observations or radio broadcasts . Seizure by the U . S . Coast Guard . The U . S . Coast Guard , per request of the Danish colonial government seeking a neutral sponsor , assumed responsibility for supplying the Danish settlements in Greenland now cut off from their homeland by the British . In April 1941 the Roosevelt Administration signed an agreement with the Danish minister in Washington , Henrik Kauffmann , who refused to take orders from ( now German occupied ) Copenhagen . It allowed full American military use of Greenland . On that authority , the icebreaker USCGC Northland patrolled Greenland in the fall of 1941 . On 12 September , alerted by a Danish observer on Ella Island weather station , found and seized the Buskø and her crew of 26 men and one woman ( wife and medic ) . ( Locals were let go . ) The sealer was in the process of visiting several Norwegian stations . Informed about Bradley , Northwind stood into Peters Bay , found the agent , who had not yet unpacked his equipment , seized him and destroyed his radio . Buskø was then towed to Boston by the USCGC Bear . American reaction . An account of the episode appeared in the " U . S . Coast Guard in WWII " ( 98 – 100 ) : “ Twelve men , led by Lt . Leroy McCluskey , were assigned to attack and capture the station . About midnight the landing party proceeded in a small boat to within a mile of the station . Lt . McCluskey surrounded the shack with his commandos and , gun in hand , kicked in the door of the building and rushed in upon three men who were resting in their bunks . The German radiomen quickly surrendered and told all they knew . Their radio equipment and code were also taken . Under pretense of building a fire to make coffee for the Americans , the radiomen tried to burn some papers , but the Coast Guard party was too quick for the Nazis and the papers were seized . They turned out to be confidential instructions – Hitler ’ s plans for radio stations in the far north – and of considerable value to the Coast Guard . ” Most of this is contradicted in Norwegian sources , but the account illustrates how Americans perceived and reacted to the incident . Thus , the official history of the U . S . Navy in World War II states : “ The capture of the BUSKOE expedition by Commander Smith marks the first blow struck by the United States Navy against Germany , and as such was the first violation of the United States Neutrality policy . ” The arrival of Buskø with 21 Norwegian captives on 14 October was extensively covered in the American press . On 12 October , the New York Times held that a Nazi spy ship with a “ Gestapo agent ” had been caught in the Western Hemisphere , and reported rumors about extensive German activities in the island . The paper wrote : “ The seized vessel , so sea - worn that little of her paint remained , was ketch rigged and equipped with an auxiliary steam engine . Norwegian colors flew at her masthead and were painted on her sides . She was extremely filthy , according to members of the prize crew . Piled on the deckhouse were skis and dog sleds , and a husky and a huge black Newfoundland dog wandered about the decks . ” Resolution . Buskø ’ s crew , initially held for lacking “ proper traveling documents , ” was set free , except for Bradley who was detained for three months before emigrating . With the German declaration of war on the U . S . A . two months later , the affair disappeared from public memory except as a footnote . Buskø eventually returned to Norway and sank with the loss of 79 men in 1952 . The episode came on the heels of an engagement involving the USS Greer , revealed by President Roosevelt to the nation on the same day Buskø was seized , and thus played a role in the formation of American opinion in the last months of neutrality .