In those days, convoys would come together outside Cheseapeake Bay ... to prevent sinking-ship contamination of highly productive Cheseapeake waters.
German subs were nightly busy out there ... sinking ships.
The convoys were carrying all sorts of supplies for our desperate allies.
There is a lot of history (and recent) of our efforts to protect our nation.
Not to dwell on the Paul-Perry dust-up but Gov. Rick Perry flew a C-130 Hercules.
There is a book about that called Torpedo Junction.
Residents of North Carolina’s Outer Banks saw the same thing; according to historical records, almost 400 ships were sunk in U.S. waters from January to June 1942, and the area off Cape Hatteras was known as “Torpedo Junction.” The glow of burning tankers off-shore was bright enough (legend has it) that you could read a paper on the Hatteras beaches at night.
The Brits—who depended on our shipping as a lifeline— offered sound advice, which was largely ignored. We didn’t implement a convoy system until the middle of ‘42, and it took almost as long to enforce blackout policies along the coast. At one point early in the war, there was a single, antiquated Coast Guard cutter assigned to anti-sub patrols off the Carolina coast.
The results were predictable. A lot of merchant mariners paid with their lives for our lack of preparation early in the war.