Armstrong – Table of Contents

Assistant Surgeon Charles Armstrong, USPHS, aboard Coast Guard Cutter SENECA,^
while assigned to the United States Navy, 1916-1918, during World War I. Courtesy
of the National Library of Medicine.
The Seneca’s first sailing orders with Armstrong aboard were for iceberg patrol in
the North Atlantic. The Coast Guard and Navy were still very sensitive to the hazard of
floating icebergs and their threat to merchant shipping since the sinking of the Titanic in
April 1912. The crew was issued cold weather gear, and the ship’s galley was stocked
with high caloric food in anticipation of patrolling in the frigid North Atlantic. At the last
moment the orders were countermanded; the ship and crew were ordered to sail to Cuba
and to patrol the Straits of Florida because of rumors of German submarines in those
waters. Since there was much shallow water, and extensive coral reefs, around Cuba, the
Seneca could not approach close to shore; the Skipper decided to explore the Cuban
shoreline with a small launch that was attached to the mother ship. Armstrong persuaded
the Skipper that a medical officer should accompany the launch since “something might
happen”. For the next several weeks Armstrong had an enjoyable trip around the Cuban
shoreline looking for German submarines. Armstrong and the launch crew encountered
no hostile activities except for some irritable locals who menaced them on shore by
brandishing their machetes at them.