The USCGC Taney: Pearl Harbor and Beyond

by Paul B. Cora Built in the mid-1930s as one of the famed Treasury class of large U.S. Coast Guard cutters, USCGC Taney had a distinguished career spanning five decades of continuous service. Taney’s remarkable history includes a significant combat record during World War II which placed the ship in harm’s way from the beginning of the Pacific War in 1941 through Japan’s surrender in 1945, with stints of convoy escort duty in the Atlantic along the way. Now preserved as a museum in Baltimore, Md., visitors to the historic vessel can gain a poignant appreciation for the actions and efforts of Coast Guardsmen in World War II while exploring one of the ships they took into battle. [text_ad] When commissioned, the seven Treasury Class cutters were the largest and most capable ships in U.S. Coast Guard service, a distinction which Taney and her sister ships retained until the 1960s. They were built in the midst of the Great Depression at three U.S. Navy shipyards and benefited from exemplary workmanship, which partly accounted for their lengthy active careers. At 327 feet long with a beam of 41 feet and originally displacing 2,000 tons, they were steam-turbine driven, single-rudder, twin-screw vessels with stout hulls made from half-inch thick riveted steel plates. Designed for peacetime missions of law enforcement, search and rescue, and maritime patrol, the Treasury Class cutters had a top speed of 20 knots and original armament consisting of two 5-inch deck guns