Frances Owens to Samuel Robert Owens, January 10, 1942

The following is a letter from Frances Elvira Alexander Owens (1879–1965) of Webster, NC, to her son, Samuel Owens (1918–1995), who was then serving in the U.S. Navy. At the time of the letter’s original posting, Samuel Owens was aboard a submarine tender, the USS Canopus. When the U.S. entered WWII, the Canopus was stationed in Manila Bay. On December 29, 1941, a Japanese bomb penetrated several decks of the ship and exploded on the propeller shaft, rendering the Canopus immobile. The crew abandoned the ship during the day, using ropes to rig the ship askance until nightfall so that it appeared to the Japanese to be derelict. The Canopus serviced its last submarine the week of April 1 (USS Canopus Part I). On April 9, 1941, the ship was scuttled, or intentionally sunk, to keep its valuable equipment out of enemy hands (USS Canopus Part II)

The Canopus by Capt. E.L. Sackett, U.S.N.

In the years between the first and second world wars, the West watched with growing alarm the rise of militarism in Japan. Japan began a full-scale invasion of China in the summer of 1937 which culminated in the infamous Nanking Massacre that, an attack on the Great Wall of China in 1938, and continued bombardment of Chinese cities during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Seeking to counteract Japan’s economic and military influence in the region, the United States and its allies discontinued sale of oil, steel, and iron ore to Japan. Viewing this embargo as a provocation, Japan saw war with the West as the only way to protect its interests in the Pacific and attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Japan’s attacks on the Philippine Islands in the following days included the bombing of Nichols Field, a U.S. military airfield south of Manila and near the Cavite Navy Yard in Manila where the submarine tender USS Canopus was carrying out its duties before being moved north to Mariveles Bay.These events serve as an opening to the remarkable story of the USS Canopus and its men transcribed and edited here