BENJAMIN BOTTOMS WPC 1132
Ship Name and Designation History
This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.
Named 27 February 2015 Keel Laid - Launched Delivered 8 January 2019 |
 |
This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).
Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.
- USCGC Benjamin Bottoms WPC-1132 Covers Page 1 (DATE RANGE)
Postmarks
This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.
A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an
image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN
THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the
existing example.
|
Postmark Type |
Postmark Date |
Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image |
Thumbnail Link To Cover Image |
|---|
|
USPS |
2019-05-01 |
 |
N/A |
Commissioning, cachet by Dennis W. Gill
Other Information
NAMESAKE - Radioman 1st Class Benjamin Autrell Bottoms, USCG (1 November 1913 - 29 November 1942)
Bottoms was born in Cumming, Georgia and grew up on a farm near Marietta, Georgia, and graduated from Marietta High School in 1931. He enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard 13 October 1932, and was trained at Receiving Unit, New London, Connecticut. During 1933 he served with the destroyer force that the Coast Guard operated in the Rum War of the Prohibition era. The destroyers he was assigned to were USCGC Herndon, which operated out of Boston and USCGC Conyngham, homeported in Philadelphia.
In December 1933 Bottoms transferred to the communications division at the Coast Guard Yard, Curtis Bay, Maryland, where he became interested in radio operating. From June 1934 to October 1935, he was assigned alternately to the Cutters Ossipee and Guthrie, both homeported in Portland, Maine. Following further training at Fort Trumbull training station in New London, he served as radioman 3rd class with the Cutters Thetis, Harriet Lane and Ossipee again out of homeports along the Massachusetts coast.
From June 1937 to October 1938, he was attached to USCGC Carrabasset at Curtis Bay, following this he returned to USCGC Harriet Lane in Gloucester, Massachusetts. While assigned to Gloucester, Bottoms married Olga Bernice Rogers on 10 October 1937. After a brief period of training with the Boston division, he was assigned to Coast Guard Air Station Salem, Massachusetts, in October 1939. During the period from June to November of 1941 he was stationed temporarily aboard the Cutter Northland as preparations were being made for the cutter to take on an aircraft. He then returned to Salem air station for a brief time.
Early in 1942 he rejoined Northland to serve as radioman 1st class assigned to the J2F-4 Grumman amphibious plane that the cutter carried on the Greenland patrol.
On 28 November 1942 as Northland drifted in Comanche Bay, a radio message notified the commanding officer that the position of the U.S. Army B-17 “Flying Fortress” that had crashed into the ice cap near the west coast of Greenland had been ascertained. As the radioman, Bottoms would accompany the pilot, Lt. John A. Pritchard, of the cutter’s plane on the hazardous rescue flight. Though no one ever before had successfully landed a plane on the ice cap, the two men were confident that the rescue could be accomplished.
On 28 November 28, 1942 the pair were able to make one successful landing near the B-17 and brought the two most injured crew members to the USCGC Northland. Prior to their second landing, an overland expedition to the downed B-17 had experienced its own disaster, with a sled falling into a crevasse. When Bottoms and Pritchard landed, and learned of this additional disaster, they planned to take one more crew member to the USCGC Northland, and return with USCGC Northland crew members to help search for members of the overland expedition. On 29 November 1942, they took off successfully, but the USCGC Northland's radio operator heard their transmissions fade as they were struck by bad weather. After the weather cleared another plane found Lt. Pritchard's wreck, and from above determined their crash had not been survivable. For his part in the daring rescues, Bottoms was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.
Copyright 2024 Naval Cover Museum