USCGC Hermes

**USCGC Hermes,** formal designation **WPC-109,** was a *Thetis*-Class cutter in service to the US Coast Guard from March 7th, 1932 until November 2nd, 1948. It was decommissioned and sold for scrap to the Learner Company on May 16th, 1958.

Part of the *Thetis*-Class (which some people on the internet refer to as the Argo class due to the fact that the first of the class, WPC-100, was named the Argo), the Hermes was built to patrol the East Coast of the United States for bootleggers during prohibition, as dudes would park their boats in international waters to sell booze in peace. This job was made irrelevant almost immediately when prohibition ended in 1933, so the Hermes was sent over to the west coast to hang out near San Francisco. She sailed around for a bit, visiting Alaska at one point for reasons the coast guard website doesn't really specify, until World War II started, where she was moved back to California to help fight over there. According to the coast guard: "She made a depth charge attack on a sound contact on 31 December 1941, an attack that the Navy noted that it was a "Class E" assessment, meaning that if there was an enemy submarine present it was "probably slightly damaged."', which as near as we can tell, means she maybe possibly could have almost slightly hurt a Japanese submarine, which still rocks I guess. Two other boats in the *Thetis*-class, the Thetis (WPC-115) and the Icarus (WPC-110) actually did kill U-boats during the war. U-boat.com lists the class as being "Argo Class", and since WPC-100 was indeed named Argo, we were thinking that like, maybe it was *originally* called the Argo class, but then like, the Thetis actually did something and they renamed it in honor of it? But then like, the Icarus got it's kill like a month earlier: "In 1942, *Icarus* sank the German submarine *U-352* off the coast of North Carolina and took its survivors into custody as prisoners of war. *U-352* was the second World War II U-boat sunk by the United States in American waters, and the first one from which survivors were taken." This was in May, and the Thetis killed a guy in June, so that theory doesn't really hold water (hahaha) unless it was a Rodimus star sort of deal and nobody gave the Icarus the respect it deserved? Maybe U-boats.com is just wrong who knows. Anyway.

On 26 January 1943 she rescued 11 survivors from the SS *Lewis Cass*. Thing is though, this article some guy wrote said that another ship called "Tiger" (WPC-152) also helped save some of the guys, so also maybe who knows, it was a group effort. This was in Baja California by the way. On 12 September 1945 she seized eight fishing vessels who were fishing in a restricted zone around San Clemente Island, so yay Hermes? That was all it did during the war I think.

   Uh so like then the war ended and nobody knew what to do with the Hermes, so they sent her to Hawaii for some reason but it wasn't useful there either, so after almost a decade of sitting in storage they finally sent it back to the Bay Area. From the coast Guard Website: "She was placed "In Commission, In Reserve" status on 26 December 1947 and was stored at Sand Island.  Due to a lack of personnel and the need to reactivate a buoy tender, it was decided to keep the *Hermes* in storage indefinitely.  She was placed in a "decommissioned, in reserve" status on 2 November 1948.  She was towed to San Francisco, arriving there on 6 October 1950, and was again placed in storage at the Alameda Coast Guard Base.  Here she was used as a training aid for Coast Guard recruits. " So I guess they used it for a little bit to drive guys around for fun. But finally, by 1958, they REALLY had no idea what to do with it, so they sold it to the Oakland Learner Company. Now there's no reliable sources on how it got from those guys to sunken in the San Pablo Bay where it is today, but the Learner Company does scarp metal stuff, right, and they also had lots of lawsuits from being a shady company that allegedly didn't pay taxes and may have tried to falsely claim it was selling japanese assets? This blog tells us that the scrap metal company essentially didn't even know what to do with the thing, so they paid the marina to sink it there. This one dude with a drone took photos of the spot, and the theory is corroborated by the appearance of several other ships. It also makes sense when you consider the Learner Company's legal troubles -- they probably just needed a quick buck. So there it sits, serving the bay as a breakwater and making an interesting rabbit hole to go down for interested bay area passers-by.

During the Sixth Age citizens of Richmond attempted to hide in the wreck of the Hermes during Xanos's attack on the city.