CHAGUARAMAS NAVAL BASE - The Destroyer Base

Chaguaramas Naval Base was one of the eight bases, popularly known as "Destroyer Bases" because of their acquisition from Britain in exchange for over-age destroyers. Individually and collectively they were of significant value in that they afforded strategically located sites upon which to base tactical and patrol aircraft for the control of the Caribbean.
The United States arrived in Trinidad on the 10 October 1940 on the USS St. Louis. The U.S. Navy Department received authority to enter Trinidad on January 13, 1941. Final lease agreements for all the bases were consummated March 27, 1941.
Groundwork of the site for the naval base and air station commenced on 1 March 1941 and ceremonial possession took place on 31 March. The base was commissioned on Friday, 1 June 1941. By 1942, Trinidad became a naval in service base outfitted with a section base; net, supply and fuel depots; a hospital; a degaussing range; and ship restore facilities. It achieved full operation in 1943.
At first, there were some difficulties as the local government did not have a clear picture of the agreement between the British and the United States governments concerning the use of the leased areas, and it was necessary for the Bureau to secure temporary leases in order to avoid delaying construction until such matters as customs, taxes, wharfage fees, and wage rates for local labor could be settled.
The strategically important island of Trinidad, commanding a vulnerable approach to the Panama Canal and the South American trade routes, lies off the coast of Venezuela. It is roughly 35 by 55 miles, with two long, narrow peninsulas extending westward toward the continent to form the Gulf of Paria, completely landlocked except for two easily guarded channels, each 7 miles wide.
The site for the naval shore establishment, on the northwest tip of the island, was acquired under two separate lease agreements, the first of which, dated April 22, 1941, involved 7,940 acres, including five small islands in the Gulf of Paria, the property of the Crown.
The second acquisition, made during December 1942, involved 3,800 privately owned acres. The site consisted principally of steep hills and ridges, interspersed with flat valleys extending from four well-defined bays along the southern shore of the northwest peninsula.
This location had the patent advantage of being remote from Port of Spain, the principal Trinidad city and port. From an engineering standpoint the flag areas along the shore, though limited, contained a minimum of swampy lowland, and the bay waters, with a minimum of dredging, were deep enough for accessibility by ships.
The four bays -- Carenage, Chaguaramus, Teteron, and Scotland -- and two valleys -- Chaguaramus and Tucker -- each became the locale of a separate naval activity. Of the 11,740 acres acquired, only 1,200 acres were developed, at widely separated locations.
Development and fortification of each base took into account the limitations imposed by location and character of terrain. Trinidad was major air base. For immediate strategic reasons, Trinidad, was given top priority and eventually became most important base for the operation of ships as well as aircraft.
At the very beginning of the construction NAS Chaguaramas, as a major air base, as visualized by the Greenslade Board, for the installation of emergency shore facilities to house a Marine detachment, with complete facilities for operation, storage, and supply, engine overhaul, and complete periodic general overhaul of all types of planes. A secondary air base was a smaller installation, having facilities primarily for the operation, routine upkeep, and emergency repair of aircraft.
Development was initiated by the Bureau of Yards and Docks on October 30, 1940, by assigning to the fixed-fee contract then operating at San Juan, the task of purchasing the necessary materials and equipment in advance of operations on the site. This beginning permitted the preliminary work attending a project of this magnitude to progress simultaneously with the negotiations attending the transfer of these Crown lands.
The Greenslade Board submitted its recommendations to the Secretary of the Navy on October 27, 1940, and tentative leases for the lands required were drawn, based on these findings; the necessary topographic and hydrographic surveys were begun. Remoteness of the sites, unknown bidding conditions, and the pressing necessity for speed contributed to the decision to undertake the construction at each location by negotiated cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts.
The original plans for Trinidad called for the immediate construction of a naval air station with facilities to support the operation of one patrol squadron of seaplanes and the development of a protected fleet anchorage in the Gulf of Paria. The ultimate goal was the development of a subsidiary operating base and a major air station with facilities for two patrol squadrons and the temporary operation of two carrier groups.
On January 24, 1941, a fixed-fee contract was awarded covering the construction of the air station and the first installment of dredging. Construction operations, which began during March, were confined to the Carenage Bay area. Included in the initial phase of the program were a 500-by-50-foot tender pier, seaplane facilities, including a concrete-paved beach and a macadam parking area, two concrete seaplane ramps, a steel hangar and control tower, gasoline storage, and associated industrial, storage, administration, and personnel buildings. These major features of the station were of a permanent character, built of steel and concrete.
During the early months of the construction period the contractor's efforts were devoted to the many preliminaries attending a project of this magnitude. It was necessary to relocate a settlement of several hundred persons, build access roads, develop a quarry, and perform extensive clearing operations. One of the earliest projects undertaken was, of necessity, an aggressive campaign to combat malaria. Swampy bogs along the shore and the wet lowlands of Tucker Valley were drained, sprayed with oil, and later filled with dredged material. A force of 200 men devoted full time to the malaria program during the life of the contract.
Almost from its inception, the Trinidad contract, by a steady increase of added projects to its scope, reflected the trend of world events. The first increase, made in June 1941, was directed toward developing Trinidad as a fleet base. A net depot, additional dredging, a fueling pier, and a fuel and diesel-oil storage depot were added to the contact. The fuel storage comprised five 27,000-barrel steel tanks and two 27,000-barrel pre-stressed-concrete tanks. The fueling pier was a 450-by-50-foot structure with a composite deck of concrete and laminated wood.
Dredging operations, begun in August 1941, were continued over a two-year period, during which time a total of 13,000,000 yards of material was moved to provide navigable channels to the various piers, water approaches to the seaplane base, a fleet anchorage in Carenage Bay, and the fill necessary to reclaim waterfront area. Of this total, more than 2,000,000 yards were placed in swamps to eliminate mosquito-breeding areas.
Shortly after the declaration of war, the long-range plans made for Trinidad were translated into a vigorous construction program through a series of major additions made to the contract during 1942. The first of these, a section base at Teteron Bay, was incorporated with the air station on February 20. At the same time, contracts were let for five large fleet warehouses and a radio station, a high-power link in the major radio network of the Western Hemisphere. The station was located in Chaguaramus Valley and was of unusual design in that its main antennae were strung across the valley, supported by the mountain ridges on either side.
In March construction of a 150-bed hospital in upper Tucker Valley was begun. May brought new additions to the air station, including a third seaplane ramp, additional parking area, and more personnel buildings, increasing the station's handling capacity to five squadrons of patrol planes. At the same time, two timber floating drydocks, one of 3,000-ton capacity and one of 1,000-ton capacity, were incorporated in the contract. These were built on the site, in two dredged basins especially equipped for the operation.
In June, work was started on two 250,000-gallon concrete gasoline tanks, built underground and connected to the water displacement system installed to handle aviation gasoline at the air station. The total capacity of liquid-fuel storage constructed was in excess of 7,900,000 gallons.
The United States entry into the war made U.S. shipping a target for enemy submarines, and Germany was quick to take advantage of this opportunity by incursions into Trinidad coastal waters in January 1942. A squadron of ten Army bombers, equipped with radar detection devices, began operating from Trinidad, to meet the shift in the U-boat threat. By this time the squadron had been augmented by several hundred bombers, both Navy and Army, under the operational control of the Navy.
The coastal convoy system was established in May and expanded, during the summer months, to the Gulf and the Caribbean. Notwithstanding these measures, there were five ships sunk between April and September, with cargo intended for Trinidad, which not only contributed to the cost but added considerable time loss. One of these ships carried the complete materials for a second seaplane hangar intended for the air station; the hangar was never built.
With each succeeding month during the summer of 1942 new projects were added. In August, a supply depot, comprising 20 large wooden warehouses with concrete floors, was begun on reclaimed swamp land in Chaguaramas Valley.
During September, work was started on the assembly of nine steel barges and the installation of a degaussing range on Pelican Island.
(Pelican Island is an island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is one of “The Five Islands” group of six small islands lying west of Port of Spain in the Gulf of Paria. Caledonia Island, Craig Island, Lenagan Island, Nelson Island, Pelican Island and Rock Island.
At the start of WWII, the Germans developed a new magnetic trigger for mines, one based on the mine’s sensitivity to the magnetic field of a ship passing nearby. As set out here, the design of such mines fortuitously fell into British hands, allowing them to develop countermeasures for such mines: A ship or large ferrous object passing through the earth’s magnetic field will concentrate the field at that point. The mine’s detector was designed to go off at the mid-point of the ship passing overhead.
Degaussing is a process in which systems of electrical cables are installed around the circumference of ship’s hull, running from bow to stern on both sides. A measured electrical current is passed through these cables to cancel out the ship’s magnetic field. Degaussing equipment was installed in the hull of Navy ships and could be turned on whenever the ship was in waters that might contain magnetic mines, usually shallow waters in combat areas. It could be said that degaussing, correctly done, makes a ship “invisible” to the sensors of magnetic mines, but the ship remains visible to the human eye, radar, and underwater listening devices.
From the struggle to combat the German submarine menace and the strategic necessity for adequate strength to protect The U.S. southern flank in the Atlantic, came the decision to equip Trinidad with facilities for ship repair. Begun as an air station and commissioned as such on October 1, 1941, Trinidad, a year later, became a complete naval operating base, equipped with a section base, net, supply, and fuel depots, a hospital, a degaussing range, a radio station, and ship-repair facilities.
The work at the repair base, on Chaguaramus Bay, included extensive dredging and a waterfront development comprising four finger piers and a 1,800-foot quay wall. Two of these piers, one 350 feet and the other 600 feet long, were built on timber piles. The other two, 600 feet long, were supported by concrete piles.
In addition, the base was completely equipped with shops, an administration building, a power plant built of reinforced concrete and equipped with six 700-kw diesel generators, five 2-story barracks to house 1,000 men, officers' quarters, and a laundry.
These additions beyond the original plan brought about major changes in site planning, making it necessary to develop overall plans for highways, electric-power distribution, communications, and water and sewerage system.
A few roads of good surface quality existed on the reservation, but they had eventually to be replaced as a result of heavy usage or relocated as the station expanded. Of the 57 miles of roads built within the reservation, 30 miles were hard surfaced, 11 miles were given a heavy penetration, and the remainder were coral-surfaced or dirt. Fortunately, road-building materials were readily at hand -- native coral sand dredged from Carenage Bay and emulsified asphalt produced locally, combining to yield a durable wearing surface.
Tucker and Chaguaramus valleys, the two principal watersheds, contain water-bearing sand and gravel deposits which were developed as a source of water supply by means of 25 wells, driven at scattered locations. The wells were connected to a system of 20 reservoirs, so located as to maintain gravity pressure in the distribution mains. The water was chlorinated at each well and required no filtering.
All supervising personnel, and the majority of the skilled trades labor used in construction in Trinidad were hired in the States and brought to the station under contract. Upon these men fell the task of leading and teaching the local labor employed. Exclusive of a few outstanding individuals, the majority of the local workmen had received little or no education, were unaccustomed to United States procedures, and had difficulty in understanding the English of the continentals, who had equal difficulty understanding them. There was a definite caste distinction, not only among the different races but among the different employment classifications. They were temperamental among their own groups, which often resulted in serious fights, particularly between the men of Trinidad proper and those of the smaller islands. They had to be taught, checked, and coached, from the beginning of the operation to the end, which threw an enormous burden on the supervisors, intensified by the large labor turnover and the wide diversification of the project as a whole.
On December 30, 1942, when the 30th Construction Battalion arrived at Trinidad, the contractor was maintaining all completed and partially completed facilities in addition to performing his current construction program. The Seabees immediately took over the maintenance and operation of all completed or usably completed facilities, permitting the contractor to concentrate his personnel on construction work.
In January 1943, the Public Works Department was organized, officers and men of the 30th Battalion being assigned to the various maintenance and operating divisions. Those Seabees having specialized training were shifted into power house, refrigeration, transportation, and other activities. The remainder, other than administrative personnel, were used on minor construction jobs.
In April, the Bureau of Yards and Docks requested termination of the contract by June 30, 1943, and at the same time directed the station Public Works Department to take over new construction activities in addition to base maintenance. With more than 600 Seabees assigned to maintenance and 900 civilian employees to be replaced, the 30th Battalion was hard pressed to satisfy all demands for personnel. Accordingly, the 83rd Battalion was assigned to Trinidad, the first echelon arriving the latter part of May and the remainder during June. When the contractor terminated his activities on June 30, these two battalions carried on with the uncompleted portion of the work, which amounted to 25 per cent of the authorized program.
Upon the termination of the contract, the Navy purchased a hydraulic dredge, and dredging operations were continued under a new contract, awarded primarily for the purpose of indoctrinating Seabees in the operation of this type of dredge. After six months training the Seabee crew assumed complete supervision of this piece of equipment, and the contract was terminated in January 1944. Dredging operations were completed in the Trinidad area in June 1944, at which time the dredge was transferred to the Pacific area for further operations.
The original lease agreement did not include the upper reaches of Tucker Valley and the Maqueripe Bay area fronting the Caribbean on the north side of the peninsula. After U.S. entry into the war, control of this area became essential to the military security of the base. In the supplemental lease consummated in December 1942, whereby these areas were included in the 99-year lease, it was agreed that the United States would build and turn over to the local government a roadway along the northern shore of the peninsula to permit the general public to have access to the beach at Maracas Bay in lieu of facilities formerly available at Maqueripe.
Work on this 71/2-mile highway was started late in March 1943 by the contractor, continued by the Seabees upon termination of the contract in June, and completed and turned over to the local government in April 1944. Requiring the removal of 1,000,000 cubic yards from perilous mountainside heights, the road, as built through virgin jungle, was 24 feet wide, paved with asphalt macadam for a width of 14 feet, and nowhere exceeded a 10-percent grade, despite its climb from sea-level at Port of Spain to a 1,335-foot elevation within a distance of 2 miles.
ARMED FORCES RADIO WVDI
In May 1943 the The U.S. Armed Forces Radio Station WVDI commenced regular broadcasts to the service men at the Chaguramas base in Trinidad on a frequency of 570 kHz with a Low power of 250 watts constraint (Imposed by the Local Government).Broadcast hours between 10:00 Gmt and 12:30 Gmt and between 2000 Gmt and 0300Gmt. WVDI’s studio and transmitter was located United states Naval Station in Trinidad B.W.I. Member of Armed Forces Radio and Television services.
Although intended for the military personal situated at the U.S. Naval base in Chaguaramus, the 250 watt signal could also be heard faintly throughout the Island.
The transmission were not intended for general consumption in Trinidad.
However Trinidad public listened to them, as the local stations were very slow to pick up on the popular rock and roll that was dawning in America and gaining popuarity in Trinidad.
The station also provided a platform for local Calypso musicians whose performances were broadcast and proved to be very popular.
Holly Betaudier During the 1950s, he worked as an announcer at the American Naval Base in Chaguaramas and the WVDI Station. He was the host of "Holly's Happy Moments," a popular radio show that featured the best of local talent He utilised his position at the U.S. Armed Forces radio service network WVDI in the 1940s to promote calypso and parang music.
Boscoe Holder also had his own programme, Piano Ramblings, on the U.S. Armed Forces Radio Station, WVDI. The show aired every Sunday afternoon. His dance company also performed constantly at various Officers’ Clubs and U.S.O.’s, and Holder was commissioned by scores of servicemen to paint their portraits so that they could send them home to their loved ones in America.
On Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. you could her at least 4 episodes
of popular comic strip heroes: Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers if my memory serves me.
PANDEMONIACS Effect on Culture
The U.S. presence in Trinidad had a great influence on the culture of the people of Trinidad but likewise Trinidad culture had an influence on the Americans as well.
Admiral Daniel V Gallery and his Oil Drum Band
The Steelbands unusual US Ambassador.
This is the story of a farsighted American Admiral, who became by a quirk of history, unadmittedly the first true ambassador for the steelbands of Trinidad and Tobago to the United States of America in 1957.
While our own nationals were displaying such apathy towards pan and panmen, the Americans were getting into the act.
Admiral Daniel V. Gallery, commandant of the Tenth Naval District of which Trinidad is part, was a highly decorated naval officer, yet he is perhaps best known today as the founder of the first continuously running, non-Trinidadian American-based steel band. Gallery often lamented this legacy:
I never heard of the steel drum until I was in Trinidad at carnival time in 1957, when I heard hundreds of them in the fabulous carnival parade. The music just got inside me and shook me up. I bought a whole set of steel drums. . . .He fell in love with the music, and sent his whole Navy band to Trinidad for a week, with orders to buy a set of drums and come back knowing how to play them. Orders were orders, and they were well-trained musicians. The pans and other equipment were supplied by the Esso Steelband...
The US Navy Steel Band was the first all-American and only military steel band.
The first musicians of the U.S. Navy Steel Band were navy musicians stationed in San Juan who Gallery ordered to learn how to play the steel drums. Gallery regularly flew in famed Trinidadian steel bandsmen Ellie Mannette from 1957 to the early 1960s for instruction, steel band tuning, and maintenance.
The band was originally called Admiral Dan's “Pandemonaics” and this remained as a subname after they became the US Navy Steel Band stationed in Puerto Rico until 1973. The Pandamoniacs, as they were known, immediately took the island by storm, instilling enough confidence for Gallery to embark on a tour of the United States. In 1970 they moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. From there, stationed at the Naval Support Activity Base in the Algiers section of New Orleans, they increased their performance schedule. Between 1973 and 1979 alone the band traveled over a million and a half miles, and performed as many as 500 concerts a year. The U.S. Navy Steel Band cut several records and performed more than twenty thousand concerts worldwide, until it was disbanded in 1999.
Their first recording, in 1957, under the direction of Chief Musician Charles A. Roeper, on the Decca label, was an LP called "Pan-Demonia". Among their other recordings are an LP called Blowin' in the Wind that was co-issued by the Puerto Rico Council and the U. S. Navy League; it features numerous popular songs of the day and some traditional Puerto Rican songs (all instrumentals).
The Tenth Naval District Steelband (of the United States Navy) was, in addition to making a name for itself in the USA, also making top news in Trinidad and Tobago. One month before the poorly attended steelband preliminary at the Astor Cinema, according to the Trinidad Guardian, the US Navy Steelband was playing at the White House:
Steelband to make White House Debut: A Steelband, Trinidad's contribution to the music world will make its first appearance at the White House Washington, next month, when Admiral Gallery's Steelband of Marines stationed at the U.S. Naval Base, Puerto Rico, tour the U.S. next month.
For the steelbands; Pandemoniacs probably publicised the arrival of the genre in the USA, as much as their Trinidadian counterparts TASPO, had previously done in Europe in 1951. (Source:  Darryl Lou Hing, Angelo Bissessarsingh's Virtual Museum, April 5, 2018)