Commander
Ed Mack II
Member #134-1985
As a young Lt (jg.), Ed Mack was
gunnery officer aboard a very unusual tanker, the SS GULF DAWN, an old,
beat up tanker of the Gulf Oil Company - or so she was meant to appear.
This tanker was actually a "Q" Ship of the U.S. Navy named USS BIG
HORN. She was loaded with heavy guns, 20mm automatic guns and other
assorted weaponry plus radar, sonar and above all - HuffDuff, the High
Frequency Direction Finder.
The old tanker would always ride in the "coffin corner" of the
convoy, hoping to lure a U-Boat into a surface attack. She carried no oil
or gasoline was instead was filled with ping pong balls to keep her afloat in
case she was torpedoed. The plan was for her to come to a stop if
torpedoed, appear to be sinking with fires set in tubs on the deck and the crew,
known as the "panic party", would abandon ship in the boats and
pull away as quickly as possible. That's because another crew was waiting
on board, hidden until the proper moment, to spring to the guns and to the
controls, bringing the ship back to life as a submarine killer.
SS GULF DAWN/USS BIG HORN never was attacked by a U-Boat and so never was
really used in her designed capacity. Maybe that was just as well - the
only other times that USN "Q" ships tangled with U-Boats, the
"Q" ships were lost with all hands.
I met Ed Mack at the famed Adventurer's Club in Chicago when we were both
members. He was instrumental in giving us history of the "Q"
ships.