By John A. Tilley
Actual encounters with Nazi U-boats during World War Two attained a status in U.S. Coast Guard
Auxiliary lore similar to sightings of the Loch Ness Monster.
The 45-foot
cruiser Diane, owned by Mr. Willard Lewis, spotted a submarine late one night
off Hillsboro Light, on the east coast of Florida. Lewis and his single crewman
looked at each other, simultaneously shouted "Let's go," and steered
for the enemy. Asked later what he hoped to accomplish by ramming a steel
submarine with a wooden motorboat, Lewis explained, “I aimed at her conning
tower, . . . and I might have messed up something." The Diane missed the
U-boat by about forty feet.
Shortly thereafter Lewis took command of the 40-foot cabin cruiser JayTee,
patrolling out of Ft. Lauderdale. His crew consisted of a character named
"Uncle Bill," whose last name no one knew. On the morning of May 6,
1942, Lewis got orders via radio to search for survivors from a tanker that had
just been torpedoed. [The American Petroleum Transport Company's steam tanker Halsey]. Before the Jay-Tee could reach the reported position, it
sighted a U-boat wallowing on the surface. It probably was U-333, which was
trying to repair a damaged hydroplane after an encounter with two Coast Guard cutters
and a destroyer.
With the Jay-Tee in hot pursuit (despite the fact that its armament consisted
of a Colt .45 pistol), the U-boat tried to dive, but porpoised to the surface.
It submerged again, and Lewis began to circle, wondering what he should do
next. Suddenly there was a sickening crash and the Jay-Tee rose several feet
out of the water. Lewis and Uncle Bill looked over the side and discovered that
the U-boat was surfacing directly beneath them. After a few seconds it dived
again, leaving the Jay-Tee with a cracked keel and a streak of grey paint on
its bottom.
The Germans apparently regarded the patrolling yachts and motorboats as a nuisance (any boat with a radio could report a submarine's position, thereby robbing it of the element of surprise), but not much of a threat. One U-boat supposedly surfaced deliberately alongside a converted fishing boat of the Coastal Picket Force. The German captain emerged onto his bridge and, in perfect English, shouted "Get the hell out of here, you guys! Do you want to get hurt? Now, scram!"
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