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| USS Serpens AK-97 |
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| Retired Coast Guard officer Richard Stoud plays taps at the Serpens Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in November 2013. (Coast Guard photo) |
On Jan. 29, 1945, the munitions-laden transport USS Serpens AK-79 exploded at Guadalcanal - the deadliest Coast Guard accident of the 20th Century.
The blast killed 197 Coast Guardsmen, 51 Army stevedores, a Public Health Service surgeon and a soldier ashore hit by debris, according to the Coast Guard Compass.
``I felt and saw two flashes after which only the bow of the ship was visible. The rest had disintegrated and the bow sank soon afterwards.,'' said Guard Lt. Cmdr. Perry Stinson, the ship's commanding officer, who was ashore at the time.
The official investigation determined the accident was ``intrinsic to the loading process.''
The Serpens, launched in 1943, was 442 feet in length, displaced 14,250 tons and had a top speed of 11 knots. For defense it carried one 5-inch gun, one 3-inch gun, two 40mm and six 20mm anti-aircraft cannons.
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