SHAKO: Remembering the Deadliest Disaster in Coast Guard History

DESTRUCTION OF THE USS SERPENS.

Members of the U.S. Coast Guard attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the USS Serpens Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery on .January 27, 2023. Seventy-eight years ago, the explosion and destruction of the Navy cargo ship in which 250 were killed was the largest fatal disaster in the history of the Coast Guard. (U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser / Arlington National Cemetery)

Named after the Serpens constellation, the USS Serpens was a Crater-class Navy cargo ship commissioned in May 1943. On the night of January 29, 1945, the freighter was anchored off Lunga Beach, Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, carrying ammunition and other cargo bound for U.S. bases in the Pacific.

While the crew was loading depth charges into the holds, a massive explosion occurred. The explosion destroyed the entire ship, save for its bow, which sank to the bottom. More than two hundred and fifty men lost their lives: 196 Coast Guardsmen, 57 U.S. Army stevedores and a U.S. Public Health Service surgeon, Dr. Harry. Levin. Only two of the 198-man Coast Guard crew aboard that night survived: Seaman 1st Class Kelsie Kemp and Seaman 1st Class George Kennedy. Both awarded the Purple Heart medal.

USS Serpens (Photo U.S. Coast Guard)

The cause of the explosion was never definitively determined. At first report, the incident was attributed to enemy action but a court of inquiry later determined that the cause of the explosion could not be established from the remaining evidence.

Those who died in the Serpens disaster were originally buried at the Army, Navy and Marine Corps Cemetery on Guadalcanal. On June 15, 1949, their remains were re-interred in Section 34 at Arlington National Cemetery.

The USS Serpens Memorial was dedicated on November 16, 1950. The Octagon-shaped memorial is inscribed with the names and ranks of those who perished. At the dedication ceremony, Vice Admiral Merlin O’Neill, Commandant of the Coast Guard, stated, “We cannot undo the past, but we can ensure that these men shall be respected and honored forever.”

The USS Serpens earned one battle star for her World War II service.

The U.S.S. Serpens Monument is dedicated to those who lost their lives when the 14,250-ton ammunition ship exploded off Lunga Baech, Guadacanal on the night of January 29, 1945. (U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue)

Click here to see the names listed on the monument.

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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress, or parade, uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York in the photo.