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Indiana native's relative uncovers WW I naval saga
By MARY ANN SLATER, news@indianagazette.net
Published: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 11:52 AM EST
GO!
Richard Coyle Hasinger, the SS Felix Taussig and the US Sub Chaser 209
are probably not familiar names to many World War I history buffs.
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(At right, Richard Hasinger, who enlisted in the Navy on April 22, 1917.
Submitted photo)
They certainly weren't familiar names a few years ago to Dr. Raymond A.
Hoeffner, of Long Branch, N.J. Hoeffner is the great-nephew of Hasinger,
who was born in Indiana on Nov. 2, 1898, the son of Emma and Bernard
Hasinger, of 143 N. Fifth St. Richard Hasinger's sister, Edna, was Hoeffner's
grandmother.
Indiana native's relative uncovers WW I naval saga
A few years ago, however, Hoeffner came across a photo of Richard Hasinger among some family pictures. He did some
genealogical digging and what he discovered interested him and his family and should intrigue World War I scholars as well:
Hasinger was a crew member of the only sub chaser to be hit by friendly fire.
In his research, Hoeffner discovered that Sub Chaser 209 was shelled and
sunk by the SS Felix Taussig, a cargo ship, on Aug. 27, 1918, off the coast of
Long Island.
The Taussig mistook the chaser for an enemy vessel and fired four shots.
Eighteen crew members were killed, including Quartermaster 3c Hasinger,
whose body was lost at sea.
Until Hoeffner, 57, tracked down his great-uncle's story, his family seemed to
know little or nothing about him.
``Nobody talked about it,'' Hoeffner said during a recent telephone interview.
``It's like I resurrected him. I feel good that I brought him back to
conversation level.''
Sub chasers were small, fast vessels designed for anti-submarine warfare.
During World War I, they fought against German vessels; in World War II,
they were used to hunt and destroy both German and Japanese submarines. A history of their use can be found at
www.subchaser.org.
According to subchaser.org, about 300 sub chasers were used in World War I. Their frame and floors were made from white oak
and their planking of pine. They were 110 feet long and their full load displacement was 75 tons. The crew size was, on average,
24.
World War I sub chasers had specialized equipment for hunting their prey. They typically had machine guns on the bridge wings,
a depth-charge launcher and a 3-inch deck gun on the forward side.
Hoeffner didn't know much about World War I submarine history when he started research on his great-uncle.
``My mother (Edna Hoeffner) was cleaning out the attic and she found an old photograph,'' he said. ``That just stuck in my
head and spiked my curiosity.''
His family knew it was Hasinger in the photo and thought - erroneously, as it turned out - he had been killed off the coast of
Long Island during World War I in a submarine. But that was about all.
Hoeffner hunted for more information and learned Hasinger had enlisted in the U.S. Navy on April 22, 1917, in Philadelphia. He
was listed as a crane operator on his enrollment papers. He regularly sent $15 home to his sister, Edna, during his enlistment.
In July 1918, he was assigned to the Sub Chaser 209. According to military records, the Taussig shot at Sub Chaser 209 about 3
a.m. on Aug. 27, 1918. It was a foggy morning and, at the time, Sub Chaser 209 was running without lights and the crew
aboard the Taussig must have been suspicious. During the spring and summer of 1918, several German U-boats had caused
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damage along the East Coast of the United States. In June 1918, for example, a U-boat sank six ships and damaged two others
off the New Jersey shore.
An audio account of the shooting at www.subchaser.org describes how at least one Taussig crew member believed Sub Chaser
209 was a German U-boat when he first saw the sea craft.
Through his research, Hoeffner learned the Taussig quickly fired four shots. Three shots were from the Taussig's forward 3-inch
gun and one from a 4-inch. Although Sub Chaser 209 flashed its lights after the Taussig's firing began, it was too late. The
second and fourth shots struck the sub chaser, which burst into fire and sank within three minutes.
After Hasinger's death, his mother, Emma, who by that time had moved from Indiana to Wilmington, Del., was awarded the
World War I Victory Medal, the Submarine Clasp and the Victory button. She also received a life insurance policy on her son
totaling $5,000.
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``It was two generations that our family never spoke of Richard,'' Hoeffner wrote in an e-mail to The Indiana Gazette early this
fall. In the past year or so, he has made it his mission to change that. ``I told everyone in my family.''
He even sent the tale of his great-uncle and Sub Chaser 209 to a Web site for U.S. Navy veterans.
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``To me, it was a cool little story,'' he said.
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