USCGC Bramble

[Guest]

According to the Port Huron Times-Herald, there were two registered bidders for BRAMBLE's auction today at noon CST in Mobile. Highest bid was $80,000 as posted by MilwBob and was put forth by a local shipyard owner who intends to dismantle the ship. This information through a quote from an official with the company that had the maritime liens against the ship. The other registered bidders were a group of Coast Guard Vets who wanted to try saving her.

[MilwBob]

Bramble was sold at auction for $80k today.

[geysir]

Were any renovations done at the Mobile shipyard? What were the cost of the renovations?

I believe the $178,000 mentioned as being owed is for the trip to the Mobile shipyard.

Online articles indicate the Bramble's owner had a difficult spring-summer in 2018 with bankruptcies, theft and fraud charges, and being removed as CEO from a company.

[SteveGuc]

Just curious what the vessel will actually get at auction, any guesses?

[Timerover51]

Wondering if T.O.51 is going to make another run at it and that he probably would not have any trouble getting crew (myself included) to bring her home?

He didn't have the money to care for her properly last time he tried to buy her, so I suspect that if he buys her this time it will probably end the same way the current ownership group is ending.

When I submitted my bid, the museum did not bother to tell me that they had put the ship up as collateral for a load for the museum. That put the cost of the ship, when I finally found it out, well above what I could afford to pay and operate the ship. My health has since gone downhill, and even if I had the funds, I would not try for the ship.

[Guest]

Wondering if T.O.51 is going to make another run at it and that he probably would not have any trouble getting crew (myself included) to bring her home?

He didn't have the money to care for her properly last time he tried to buy her, so I suspect that if he buys her this time it will probably end the same way the current ownership group is ending.

[Darryl]

Wondering if T.O.51 is going to make another run at it and that he probably would not have any trouble getting crew (myself included) to bring her home?

[Guest]

As an addendum (and slight correction) to my earlier summary, thirteen of BRAMBLE's sister ships – fully one-third of the entire class built -- ended up in various foreign coast guard and navy units around the globe, including Panama (SWEETGUM), Dominican Republic (CITRUS and BUTTONWOOD), El Salvador (MADRONA- reefed 2007), Colombia (GENTIAN), Philippines (REDBUD), Estonia (BITTERSWEET retired as museum ship), Ghana (SWEETBRIER and WOODRUSH) and Nigeria (COWSLIP, FIREBUSH, SASSAFRAS and SEDGE). Ghana had two not four former CG 180s, as I had originally posted (very late or very early, depending on your perspective) the other day. One can see how these various countries could potentially view BRAMBLE as a good buy in the event that someone doesn't come through with funding for historic preservation.

In addition, the former LAUREL operates as the party boat CORAL VISION out of Guayana and the former HORNBEAM was operating as a dive boat, RUM CAY GRACE when she was hijacked in Haiti and abandoned by pirates, then driven ashore at Colon, Panama, in 2013. She is presumed to have been subsequently scrapped.

[Old Man]

An excellent summary. Thank you.

[Guest]

I suspect she'll either end up as scrap or in the hands of another adventurer without the money to support her. A sad ending.

[Guest]

The UPI wire story referenced earlier in this thread is incorrect and the news item in the 18 NOV Boatnerd news section regarding BRAMBLE also cites inaccurate information from the source material.

Bob and Sara Klingler, BRAMBLE’s owners from 2013 until the ship’s sale late in 2018, spent over a million dollars bringing the ship back into operational condition, maintaining her ”as-decommissioned” configuration with only discreet upgrades to allow her to meet modern CG navigation rules and insurance requirements (i.e. AIS transponder, improved water/fire detection equipment and alarms, security cameras, etc). She was otherwise as her last crew left her. BRAMBLE was free and clear of all liens in late 2018 when placed up for sale. It was the buyer who purchased the vessel from Klinglers, Tom Clarke of Roanoke, VA, who defaulted on his bills that now has the ship endangered.

A front-page Port Huron Times-Herald story published 20 OCT and written by Jeremy Ervin states that buyer Clarke is alleged to have failed to pay Inchcape Marine Services over $178,000 for Seaway fees, pilotage, port and mooring fees, sewage disposal and other costs. This, in the rush to leave Port Huron for Mobile as the Seaway had just opened and the ice was still windrowed high off Port Colborne in late March. The ship arrived in Mobile on 25 APR, a month to the day after she left Port Huron. Court documents indicate the ship was arrested in rem by US Marshals on 2 AUG and Clarke made no attempt to pay off the debt to release the ship from US Marshals custody by the 15 OCT deadline. These allegations were also referenced in a piece published by Maritime Executive magazine on 16 OCT and in the 18 OCT MLive story posted to the Boatnerd news page a few weeks ago.

Clarke is well-known to those who live and work in the Minnesota mining regions with his dealings related to Mesabi Metallics and ERP Iron Ore, which all had major financial and legal issues and ultimately collapsed in favor of other parties. Our Canadian friends know Clarke as a bidder and failed suitor for STELCO and the Essar Algoma Steel operations in the past few years. Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co. has an ongoing Federal Civil Racketeering (RICO) lawsuit in Delaware Federal Court against Clarke, his wife and other business partners alleging that they failed to follow through on payment for coal mines they purchased from Cliffs. In the suit, Cliffs alleges Clarke and associates funneled money from a holding company into personal accounts or into another mining company they controlled. Cliffs is seeking $100 million in damages. The suit is an eye-opening read, as are many of the other press stories about Clarke available online like Bloomberg News.

Lawsuit text:
https://images.law.com/contrib/content/ ... -Amend.pdf

US Coast Guard officials in Mobile took BRAMBLE’s bell into custody in a transfer from Clarke’s civilian captain in the latter part of October. The bell is property of the Coast Guard and was on loan through an artifact exhibit agreement with the CG Exhibit Center in Maryland. CG Chief Curator Arlyn Danielson was alerted on 18 SEP that BRAMBLE was under arrest by US Marshals and Ms. Danielson made immediate arrangements through the CG JAG office to seek return of the bell. So, there is some good news in that the bell will be headed to curated safekeeping in Maryland before it was “lost” one way or another.

According to another story in the Port Huron Times-Herald on 6 NOV by Liz Shepherd, the auction for BRAMBLE scheduled for noon Mobile time on that day of publication was postponed through the federal court to 4 DEC to allow buyers from a global market to inspect the ship before bidding. The broker retained by Inchcape is also entertaining direct purchase offers for BRAMBLE because of her historic significance. The delay in the auction is intended to help nonprofits or charitable foundations make arrangements for funding if interested in acquiring the ship for historic preservation. This provides more detail than the Boatnerd news item of 18 NOV.

BRAMBLE was listed as nationally significant on the National Register of Historic Places on 1 AUG 2012. She is the only CG 180-foot Seagoing Buoy Tender individually significant for NR listing. This, for her participation at the Baker test shot of Operation Crossroads, the postwar atomic testing at Bikini Atoll, in July 1946 (not 1947 as posted on Boatnerd). Baker was the test on surface ships. The Charlie deep-sea test for early 1947 was cancelled over concerns related to higher than expected radiation levels encountered after Able and Baker and the lack of instrumentation capable of measuring that radiation. As noted, BRAMBLE is also significant for the Summer 1957 transit of the Northwest Passage from west to east, in which she and her sister ship CGC SPAR (then WAGL-403) accompanied the larger patrol cutter/light icebreaker and task force flagship CGC STORIS (then WAG-38) on the journey. It was this NW Passage transit that Clarke reportedly wanted to recreate after purchasing the ship. SPAR was reefed off North Carolina in 2004 and STORIS illegally exported and scrapped in Mexico in 2013-14. So, only BRAMBLE remains. However, listing on the National Register is largely honorific and offers no legal protections for historic properties. So, Clarke was free to do whatever he wanted to BRAMBLE to “upgrade” her or modify her to suit his personal whims and fancies of what he thought she should be for his announced plans to cruise the Caribbean and head to the Galapagos before attempting a retracing of the 1957 NW Passage route.

As far as the release quoted in the Boatnerd news, STORIS was 230 feet in length with a beam of 43 feet and, while she physically resembled the 180-foot tenders, she was the lone example constructed of an entirely different class of cutter. That’s not entirely clear in the post as one may conclude STO was a sister to BRAMBLE. STO was more like a larger cousin with a larger hold and a third engine. STORIS served on the Greenland Patrol during WWII and when she emerged from the eastern end of the NW Passage route, she re-entered waters that she had patrolled during The War, thus becoming the first U.S.-flagged vessel to completely circumnavigate North America, though it took her several years to accomplish. SPAR was damaged during the trip and skipped festivities in Boston to return home to Bristol, RI, becoming the first American vessel to complete the trip in a single season. BRAMBLE was second when she arrived home to Miami on 1 OCT, her homeport in 1957. As STORIS had to return to Alaska via Seattle, she didn’t complete her single-season journey until reaching Seattle later in October.

BRAMBLE’s assignments dates are incorrect as posted to Boatnerd on 18 NOV. She was commissioned 22 APR 1944, arrived in Norfolk 9 JUL, San Juan 2 SEP and San Pedro 27 NOV, so she was well away from the Great Lakes when 1945 arrived. Arrival 22 JAN in Seattle, she made Ketchikan, AK, on 4 FEB. After war’s end, she was transferred to San Francisco in February 1946. It was while based in San Francisco that BRAMBLE participated in Crossroads, not Hawaii. While she stopped in Hawaii en route to Bikini, BRAMBLE wasn’t officially transferred to Honolulu until 22 AUG, being released two days later from Crossroads after testing negative for radiation. On 28 JUL 1947 she was transferred back to San Francisco, on 20 JUL 1949 to San Juan, PR, and then on 1 JUL 1953 she transferred to Miami. After her NW Passage transit based in Miami, BRAMBLE transferred to Detroit on 1 AUG 1962 to trade places with the US Lighthouse Service legacy tender USCGC HOLLYHOCK (then WAGL-220), which had a problematic mechanical reduction gear and was difficult to navigate in icy conditions. After major renovation at the CG shipyard in Curtis Bay, MD, in 1974-75, BRAMBLE transferred to Port Huron where she served out the remainder of her commissioned service. The assignments to the Caribbean mentioned in the 18 NOV news post were only temporary duty patrols during the winters of 1986-1987 and 1997-98. From December 1986 to April 1987, BRAMBLE performed law enforcement duties in the Caribbean through Operations Hat Trick III and Checkmate-7. BRAMBLE was involved in six cases during which one vessel was captured, three people arrested and fifty tons of marijuana seized. From December 1997 to April 1998, BRAMBLE was involved in Operation Snowbird. This took the cutter south once again where the main mission was to help train marine police of ten eastern Caribbean nations. While participating in Snowbird, the crew also performed work on AtoN and participated with Venezuela in a joint law enforcement operation.

It is suspected from what’s been posted in various news stories and blog posts online that the major modernization buyer Tom Clarke did to BRAMBLE with equipment he describes as being “the most modern on the ocean,” has seriously impacted if not ruined her historic integrity and as-retired configuration. For instance, her signal flag boxes, starboard boat davit, watch shack and aft dog house have all been cut off. Her warping winch is missing in auction photos. Large satellite transceiver domes and FLIR scanner are mounted on her flying bridge, with her wheelhouse filled with a modern electronics suite and a new air conditioning system. She certainly has furnishings and creature comforts that the CG would not have installed, such as a fireplace in the CO’s quarters and leather lounges. These changes are going to hurt her potential marketability to museum groups since she is no longer in CG spec. The missing pieces that had original character and acquired patina and significance would have to be restored/replaced to correct her appearance, if that which was removed/changed or direct replacements are even available. BRAMBLE was seaworthy, intact and in beautiful condition when sold. Now she’s seemingly a modern 2019 ship in a 1940s shell with the upgrades.

BRAMBLE is definitely a niche buy. With this sudden availability and being late in the year, many museums don’t have a lot of discretionary funding sitting around that they can jump in on something like this on short notice and without all kinds of meetings and board approvals unless they have a rich sponsor ready to act fast. Many maritime museums are hemorrhaging money, with several museum ships and facilities threatened across the country. BRAMBLE’s commercial uses are also somewhat limited without major expense to make the obsolete former military vessel meet the various modern USCG and ABS Subchapter requirements under USC Title 46. A private buyer with that kind of disposable income has a lot of choices to buy something newer, sexier and faster than a 75-year-old obsolete buoy tender with a brittle steel hull and propeller.

TUPELO and BALSAM were extensively rebuilt and converted into Alaskan fishing vessels in the 1970s and are still sailing in that capacity. Several of BRAMBLE's sister ships ended up in various foreign coast guard and navy units around the globe, including Panama, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Colombia, Philippines, Estonia, Ghana and Nigeria. Many are no longer in service because they are 75 to 77 years old, have many obsolete parts/systems and their level of maintenance and support is understandably much lower than what they would get stateside. El Salvador, for example, ended up reefing the former MADRONA (WLB-302) in 2007, only five years after receiving the ship. MADRONA had been completely gutted and totally rebuilt to like-new condition in a $15 million SLEP overhaul from 1984-89. The Philippines was to retire the former REDBUD (T-AKL-398) last year and, ironically, the ex BITTERSWEET (WLB-389) is now a museum ship in Estonia. The 180s that are still operating are limping along, such as the four in Ghana, including the ex-WOODRUSH (WLB-407) from Duluth and well known for her response to the EDMUND FITZGERALD’s foundering. A recently refurbished 180 coming from freshwater and with modern electronics might be a tempting buy for one of these foreign countries with a tired sister ship. Retire a worn-out vessel for spare parts and buy BRAMBLE to slip right into place… The crews would already be familiar with operating the ship’s systems. Only time will tell what happens to poor BRAMBLE, the most historic of the thirty-nine 180-foot WLBs built. At least scrap prices are down compared to previous years. Such an absolute shame.

[Mr Link]

Correction November 6th on the "steps of the Mobile court house". Although details are sketchy. See the ninth paragraph of this article:

https://businessalabama.com/historic-co ... in-mobile/


details are probably in the court documents, but I think you have to pay to view them.

https://dockets.justia.com/docket/alaba ... 0434/65140

[Mr Link]

Yours if you want it. On the auction block November 7th in Mobile Alabama.

https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2019/1 ... 571422454/

[Timerover51]

What is going on with the Bramble?