The portrait of the USS Sheboygan, a World War II-era frigate, is on display in the lobby of Mead Public Library. It is the work of Sheboygan artist Roger Lahm and was dedicated in 2001 as part of a citizen-led effort to return the ship to her homeport.
The ship, a Tacoma-class frigate (all of which survived World War II), was christened on June 30, 1943.
She was a Coast Guard vessel, under the control of the U.S. Navy, one of 26 patrol frigates assigned to weather duties and guarding air routes over which thousands of men were transported to and from the European theater of operations.
An announcement from the U.S. Navy in early June 1943 indicated that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had directed the name Sheboygan be assigned to Patrol Frigate 57, in honor of the city. At the time, it was Naval custom to name patrol frigates for American cities that had contributed to the war effort.
The USS Sheboygan was built by Globe Shipbuilding in Superior, Wisconsin, one of 10 frigates built there. Her length was 304 feet, with a 37 and one-half foot beam and a cruising speed of 20 knots. A total of 77 patrol frigates were built in the U.S. by command of the U.S. Navy.
Twenty-two Sheboygan residents traveled to Superior for the launch on July 31, 1943.
The USS Sheboygan was commissioned on May 26, 1944 in New Orleans and assigned to Task Force 66, North Atlantic Patrol Force. Soon after, she was converted to a weather patrol ship in Tampa, Florida.
By October, 1944, the crew began preparing for anti-submarine warfare operations, weather operations and guard patrols in the North Atlantic, based in the small fishing village of Argentia, Newfoundland. One crew member, Peter Bayens, was from Sheboygan.
Typically, the crew spent 30 days at sea and seven days in port, usually in Argentia or Boston.
The ship sailed the waters of Iceland, Greenland, Baffin Island, Labrador, the Azores and Bermuda. One crew member told The Sheboygan Press in 1993 that the ship hit many big storms. “I tell you,” he said, “that North Atlantic is rough.”
Harold Andresen, the Globe Shipbuilding safety director in 1943, recalled in a 1981 letter, “The Sheboygan had a tremendous task as it was used as a listening post and rescue ship, patrolled for downed aircraft and swept sub packs from the Atlantic so we could get our ships through for the Normandy Invasion.” He said it’s equipment included depth charges and all-attack equipment and it was painted a camouflage color.
The USS Sheboygan earned the Victory Medal with a star and received two ribbons, the American Theater and the European Middle Eastern-African Theater Campaigns Ribbons for service during the war.
After World War II ended, the USS Sheboygan was decommissioned in Charleston, South Carolina on March 14, 1946. She was returned to the Coast Guard where she continued work in the North Atlantic until August, 1946.
She was sold to Belgium and named Mateo in 1947 while being used as an Atlantic weather observation ship. She was rebuilt as full frigate in May 1949 and served as a training ship and fishery protection vessel named F910 Ltz. V. Billet until 1958, when she was sold for scrap.
Only one small piece of the ship returned to Sheboygan, a bayonet, part of the ship’s original battle gear. It was purchased by the VFW Post 9156. Efforts to located the nameplate in Belgium failed.
In the early 1990s, there was interest by crew members in planning a reunion in Sheboygan. But the crew members planning the event thought their initial efforts were rebuffed and planned several subsequent reunions in other cities.
In 1996, Sheboygan resident Karen Wagner read a letter in The Sheboygan Press from Howard Seelye, a crew member. She took it upon herself to help the crew members plan a reunion in the city in 1998. Then she set her sights on a more tangible reminder to city residents, and, as she said, “putting the USS Sheboygan in her homeport.”
Wagner commissioned a portrait from Sheboygan artist Roger Lahm, with funding from the Sheboygan Rotary Club, and offered it to Mead Public Library for display. She organized the dedication event, which included a military honor guard and invocation. A program held on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11, 2001, marked the unveiling of the painting of the USS Sheboygan. More than 80 people gathered to pay tribute to the ship and its crew, four of whom attended the event.
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