| "Yard
Patrol Boats - U.S. Naval Academy" by Paul McGehee. Used for training
purposes at the U.S. Naval Academy, the Yard Patrol Boats (also known
as YP boats) are a familiar sight on Annapolis, Maryland's beautiful
Severn River. Midshipmen learn sailing, navigation and seamanship on
these small craft, both at Annapolis and at the Officer Candidate
School in Newport, Rhode Island. The origin of these training vessels
goes back to the early days of World War II. In the dark days following
the December 7, 1941 attack on the Naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,
the U.S. Navy put out the call for seaworthy craft that could be
quickly employed in the nation's defense. In San Diego, 600 tuna boat
men volunteered their services and their boats...a fleet of tuna
fishing boats. The Navy leased these tuna boats for the duration of the
war, painting them battleship-gray, replacing their colorful names with
numbers and sending many of them directly into combat zones. Several of
these tuna boats were sent to the South Pacific theatre where the
Japanese sought strategic control of many of the Pacific islands. Many
saw action during the long, hard-fought battle of Guadalcanal 1942-43.
Others in the "Yippie" fleet of YP's patrolled the coastal United States
and the Panama Canal, and garnered a fair amount of press back home in
articles with headlines such as "Former Tuna Boat Fishermen Sail Yippie
Boats Against Japs" and "Tuna Boats Go to War!" After the end of World
War II in 1945, some of these intrepid tuna boats were used as training
craft for young sailors and officers in training. Today, a modern fleet
of Yard Patrol Boats have assumed these training duties, providing a
real at-sea environment in which to "learn the ropes" of becoming a
seagoing member of the United States Navy.
"Yard Patrol Boats - U.S. Naval Academy" is faithfully
reproduced
as an archival-quality print from
McGehee's original oil painting, each hand-signed by the artist. |
