USS Cascade (AD-16) , the only ship of its class, was a destroyer tender in the United States Navy .
75-772: Originally designed as a passenger-freighter, the Cascade was launched on 6 June 1942 by Western Pipe and Steel Company in San Francisco, California . The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Charles W. Crosse, wife of Rear Admiral Charles W. Crosse , USN. It was turned over to the Matson Navigation Company of San Francisco, California, for outfitting in October 1942. The Cascade was commissioned on 12 March 1943. Cascade cleared San Francisco on 12 June 1943 for Pearl Harbor , where she began her war time duty of tending destroyers . As
150-424: A $ 10 million contract was signed. Along with the contract came a government grant of $ 400,000 to help restore the company's old World War I California shipyard. Three months later, the first C1 keel - that of American Manufacturer - was laid on 5 February 1940. After the initial 1939 order for the five C1s was completed, more Maritime Commission contracts followed, but the company was to build no more C1s. Instead,
225-613: A 51-hour search, despite repeated orders from Halsey to return all ships to port in Ulithi . She picked up 41 men from Hull and 14 from Spence before finally returning to Ulithi after being directly relieved from the search by two destroyer escorts. After the fleet had regrouped (without Tabberer ), ships and aircraft conducted search-and-rescue missions. The destroyer Brown rescued the only survivors from Monaghan , six in total. She additionally rescued 13 sailors from Hull . Eighteen other survivors from Hull and Spence were rescued over
300-506: A court of inquiry was held in the wardroom of the Cascade , at Ulithi, regarding the loss of three ships and over 800 men from the US Third Fleet during a typhoon . The Third Fleet was under the command of William F. (Bull) Halsey, Jr. during the typhoon in mid-December 1944. Admiral Chester A. Nimitz, CINCPAC, was in attendance at the court. Forty-three-year-old Captain Herbert K. Gates, of
375-430: A crew of 39 to 45. Because of the shortage of water frontage, the company dredged a large rectangular launching basin, and four shipping ways - two per side - were built, which launched ships sideways into the basin. The side launching method was not ideal for ships of this size and some of the vessels suffered hull damage on launch which then had to be repaired. The company was however, to persevere with side launching for
450-698: A factory in Taft, California for the supply of pipes and containers to the oil industry . Another factory was opened in Fresno in 1913. In 1915 a third new factory was established in Phoenix, Arizona to serve the agricultural and oil industries in that state. The company made its first move into San Francisco in 1910 with the purchase of a local riveted pipe manufacturer, the Francis Smith Company, whose own origins dated back to 1854. Shortly thereafter, WPS purchased land in
525-408: A maximum roll of 39 degrees to port when hove-to with wind abeam. Her port catwalks scooped up green water, but she lost only three planes which were jettisoned from the flight deck; it took one hour to get them over the side. Three other escort carriers lost in all 86 aircraft but came through without much material damage." In the words of Admiral Chester Nimitz , the typhoon's impact "...represented
600-466: A modest role in the Second World War as troopships or transports and subsequently settled down to mundane postwar careers as cargo vessels. Others however had more unusual, more distinguished, or sometimes more tragic destinies. The following list includes a selection of these latter groups. The WPS vessel with the shortest service history was West Aleta (WPS Hull No. 8). One of the vessels built by
675-505: A more crippling blow to the Third Fleet than it might be expected to suffer in anything less than a major action." The events surrounding Typhoon Cobra were similar to those the Japanese navy faced some nine years earlier in what they termed the " Fourth Fleet Incident ". The fleet was scattered by the storm. One ship, the destroyer escort Tabberer , encountered and rescued a survivor from
750-426: A naval auxiliary and merchant marine fleet. With the purchase of Schaw Batcher, Western Pipe & Steel inherited these contracts, thus gaining its first foothold into the shipbuilding industry. The Shipping Board's contract with WPS called for the building of eighteen vessels of about 5,650 tons each and four larger vessels of 8,800 gross tons. The larger vessels were eventually cancelled in 1918 but all eighteen of
825-774: A number of the destroyer escorts were cancelled by the Navy in favor of the LSM's, which were a much-needed type at the time. The cutters by contrast were a low priority and most were only completed after the war. As the war progressed and the Allies began to achieve dominance, the need for new ships diminished and shipbuilding contracts began to wane. However, existing ships were suffering damage in combat and needed repair. Some required only minor repairs while others were badly damaged and needed extensive work. Western Pipe & Steel received its first contract for ship repair work in October 1944. By August 1945
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#1732851352202900-532: A partner named T. A. Hays. Hays, a businessman with 21 years experience in the steel industry, was at some stage appointed Vice President of the new company, which in this period was a small- calibre steel pipe and metal casings manufacturer. An early President of the company was James A. Talbot , later to make and lose a fortune as the head of the Richfield Oil Company . Western Pipe & Steel quickly began to expand its operations. In 1910 it established
975-537: A pipeline for Everett, Washington . In the late 1930s, the U.S. government set up the Maritime Commission, tasked with developing a scheme for replacing America's ageing merchant fleet with more modern vessels suitable for use as naval auxiliaries in the event of war. The commission introduced the Long Range Shipbuilding Program in 1937 which set a goal of producing 500 new merchant ships over
1050-611: A set for a scene of Italian Movie Polvere di stelle in 1973 with Alberto Sordi , Monica Vitti and John Phillip Law . The Cascade was decommissioned on 22 November 1974 and struck from the Naval Register on 23 November 1974. She was subsequently sold for scrap to Luria Brother of Brooklyn, New York , and dismantled at the Gulmar Yard in Brownsville, Texas starting September 1975. The anchor, along with mooring cleats, ended up at
1125-458: A standard Type C3 cargo ship when word came through that she was to be converted into one of the newly designed Bogue class escort aircraft carriers. The conversion was subsequently carried out and Steel Artisan briefly became USS Barnes before being transferred under lend lease to the Royal Navy who dubbed her HMS Attacker . Typhoon Cobra Typhoon Cobra , also known as
1200-586: A ten-year period. When the commission began to offer public contracts for its shipbuilding program, the Western Pipe & Steel Company found itself in an advantageous position. To begin with, the company's President, H. G. Tallerday, served on the National Labor Relations Board and thus had contacts in the Roosevelt administration. Moreover, the company's years of experience with heavy welding in
1275-563: Is available concerning the fate of the San Pedro shipyard, except that it no longer exists. In the years following the end of the war, various proposals for the revamping of the San Francisco shipyard came and went. In 1949, the Navy Bureau of Ships proposed the building of sixteen attack cargo ships (AKA) at the shipyard, but by 1952 it was decided these vessels would not be required. Instead
1350-496: The Buchanan (DD-484) . On 4 March 1945 the destroyers Ringgold (DD-500) and Yarnall (DD-541) collided while conducting night battle drills while en route to Ulithi as part of Task Group 58.1. Ringgold's bow was sheared off to frame 22 and she was extensively damaged to frame 26 port and 38 starboard. Yarnall's bow was bent to the right and upward; her bow broke off and sank during towing. Upon arrival at Ulithi
1425-415: The Cascade moved from Funafuti to Kwajalein. On 17 March 1944 Squadron 4 was absorbed into Squadron 10. The Cascade remained at Kwajalein until May 1944 when she moved to Eniwetok . On 4 October 1944 Service Squadron 10 began leaving Eniwetok for Ulithi . On 8 October 1944 Cascade sailed for Ulithi. Following operations at Leyte, Task Force 38 arrived at Ulithi on 24 December. Cascade repaired
1500-569: The Cascade , was the judge advocate for the court. Gates was an expert in mechanical and marine engineering. Recommissioned on 5 April 1951, Cascade was based in Newport, Rhode Island , as tender for the many destroyers home-ported there. From Newport she cruised to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean to support the destroyers deployed there. During this time Cascade served as flagship, and carried
1575-493: The Consolidated Wilmington shipyard . As at the San Francisco yard, these ways were all of the side-launching type. The most notable ships built at the San Pedro yard were the seven Wind class icebreakers , whose specifications were so imposing that Western Pipe & Steel was the only bidder. The yard also built a number of small warships including destroyer escorts , LSM 's and Coast Guard cutters . In 1943,
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#17328513522021650-610: The German auxiliary cruiser Michel off the Cape of Good Hope in September 1942. Eleven crew members were killed in the engagement but the remaining 47 were rescued by Michel , who turned them over to the Japanese as prisoners of war. In April 1944 eighteen survivors of American Leader were being transported on the Japanese hell ship Tamahoko Maru when the vessel was torpedoed and sunk by
1725-457: The Hull in the midst of the typhoon. This was the first survivor from any of the capsized destroyers to be picked up. Shortly thereafter, many more survivors were picked up, in groups or in isolation. Tabberer ' s skipper, Lieutenant Commander Henry Lee Plage , directed that the ship, despite its own dire condition, begin boxed searches to look for more survivors. Tabberer rescued 55 survivors in
1800-562: The Philippine Sea , conducting air raids against Japanese airfields in the Philippines and had been trying to refuel their ships. Information given to Halsey about the typhoon was incorrect, and despite warning signs of worsening conditions, the ships remained on station until December 17 when Halsey ordered the Third Fleet into the center of the typhoon. With currently available data, it
1875-647: The Richmond District of San Francisco, and moved the Francis Smith plant to the new location. In 1917 Western Pipe & Steel bought out another local San Francisco company, the Schaw Batcher Pipe Works. Schaw Batcher had frontage on San Francisco Bay and had just received a contract from the U.S. Shipping Board for the building of 22 merchant ships in accordance with the Board's strategic goal of developing
1950-721: The Ringgold went alongside the Cascade for installation of a temporary bow. In early April the Ringgold departed for Pearl Harbor for permanent repairs. On 8 March 1944 the Commander Service Squadron 10 created the Mobile Fleet Motion Picture Sub-Exchange No. 1. The Prairie operated the north exchange and the Cascade operated a branch exchange to service ships in the southern anchorage of Ulithi. The program issued 100 35-mm films and 652 16-mm films per day during December 1944. In December 1944
2025-746: The Typhoon of 1944 or Halsey's Typhoon (named after Admiral William Halsey Jr. ), was the United States Navy designation for a powerful tropical cyclone that struck the United States Pacific Fleet in December 1944, during World War II . The storm sank three destroyers, killed 790 sailors, damaged 9 other warships, and swept dozens of aircraft overboard off their aircraft carriers. Task Force 38 (TF 38) had been operating about 300 mi (260 nmi ; 480 km ) east of Luzon in
2100-508: The US Navy joined the Maritime Commission in contracting work from Western Pipe & Steel. A Navy grant of $ 7 million enabled the company to establish a second shipyard ( 33°46′02″N 118°16′43″W / 33.76728°N 118.27859°W / 33.76728; -118.27859 ) with three building ways (later expanded to five) in the Port of Los Angeles West Basin , within spitting distance of
2175-581: The suicide raids and typhoon weather. She left Okinawan waters in September to serve in Wakayama, Japan and later at Tokyo, Japan , supporting the occupation until March 1946, when she sailed for the East Coast . Cascade was decommissioned and placed in service in reserve at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , on 12 February 1947. In the autumn of 1943 Admiral Nimitz ordered the creation of two service squadrons. These two squadrons would provide mobile service to
2250-428: The 1930s now put it in the enviable position of being one of only three companies on the west coast with sufficient expertise to immediately begin building ships with all-welded hulls. The company ranked 89th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. The company's first bid - for the production of five C1 type cargo vessels - proved successful, and in October 1939
2325-467: The British were subsequently compelled to totally revise their convoy strategy. A number of warships built by Western Pipe & Steel distinguished themselves in wartime service. Perhaps the most notable of these was the escort carrier HMS Fencer . One of the four escort carriers built by the company for service with the Royal Navy, Fencer was credited with the sinking of four German U-boats during
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2400-508: The Deck, was ordered to go below to assess the raging fire. He did so safely and reported his findings back to the ship's commanding officer, Captain Stuart Ingersoll . The ship's crew was able to contain the fire, and the ship got underway again. Planes went adrift, collided, and burst into flames. Monterey caught fire at 0911 (18 December) and lost steerageway a few minutes later. The fire
2475-688: The Korean War and two in the Vietnam War, and HMS Stalker which received six battle honours for service with the Royal Navy in World War II. One WPS ship with a particularly interesting and varied history was Steel Artisan (WPS Hull No. 62). The first Type C3 ship to be built by the company, she was destined to undergo two major conversions and serve in three different roles during her service life. Launched in September 1941 under Maritime Commission contract, Steel Artisan had almost been completed as
2550-483: The Navy proposed the building of several Landing Ships Dock (LSD), but a February 1953 survey concluded that the cost of modernizing the yard would probably be excessive. In the early 1970s, the yard briefly came to life again when Howard Hughes ' Summa Corporation began the construction of the Glomar Explorer and the large submersible barge HMB-1 , as part of the top-secret Operation Jennifer whose purpose
2625-571: The San Francisco shipyard switched in 1940 to manufacture of the larger and faster C3 type , which had been expressly designed by the Maritime Commission with naval auxiliary service in mind. The C3s were to comprise the bulk of the company's manufacturing output in tonnage terms, with a total of 43 C3 hulls being produced by the company. Many of these hulls were not completed as standard C3 cargo vessels however, but were converted onsite (or at other yards) into naval auxiliaries, particularly escort carriers , attack transports and troopships . In 1941,
2700-552: The assets for $ 8.3 million to Columbia Steel, a division of US Steel, in 1948. Columbia Steel transferred the assets to a new division, Consolidated Western Steel, which was later merged into the parent company, U.S. Steel . Consolidated Western continued to manufacture pipes at facilities in Maywood and South San Francisco, including the material used in a gas transmission pipeline which ruptured in San Bruno in 2010 . Little information
2775-561: The biggest hydroelectric plant in the United States, this giant project was eventually to employ the services of 21 companies. Western Pipe & Steel was awarded the contract to build the dam's penstock and pump inlet pipes. These pipes were so large that they could not be transported to the site, and had to be manufactured onsite in a fabrication plant built expressly for the purpose. The first 18 penstock pipes were each 290 feet (88 m) long and 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter, while
2850-585: The company for the US Shipping Board in World War I, West Aleta was the last such ship to be fitted with the unreliable General Electric turbine motor. Delivered in August 1919, she made her maiden commercial voyage the same month and was subsequently drydocked for repairs. A second voyage resulted in more repairs, this time to a cracked turbine. The following January she commenced a new voyage, and on 13 February
2925-539: The company was able to report that a total of 118 ships had been repaired, with repairs taking an average of ten days per ship. But with the surrender of Japan in the same month, this work too came to an end. All shipbuilding contracts were signed during the war. A handful of ships that were still in the process of production upon the cessation of hostilities were completed in the immediate postwar period. This latter category included two icebreakers, five Type C3 cargo ships and eight high performance cutters. In addition to
3000-724: The company's wartime shipbuilding program. Another major project undertaken by Western Pipe & Steel in the interwar years was for construction of the large calibre water transport pipes between the O'Shaughnessy Dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley to the Crystal Springs Reservoir on the San Francisco Peninsula, and its subsequent extension from San Mateo to San Francisco. Today, the Dam supplies water to 2.4 million San Franciscans. The company also worked at this time on
3075-728: The course of the war - U-666 on 10 February 1944, U-277 on 1 May, and U-674 and U-959 on the same day, 2 May 1944. Fencer also participated in Operation Tungsten , the successful attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in April 1944. Some of the other warships built by Western Pipe & Steel which accumulated distinguished service records were USS Bangust , a destroyer escort which won eleven battle stars during World War II, USS Bayfield , an attack transport which received four battle stars in World War II, four in
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3150-463: The fire was brought under control promptly; Langley rolled through 70 degrees; San Jacinto reported a fighter plane adrift on the hangar deck which wrecked seven other aircraft. She also suffered damage from salt water that entered through punctures in the ventilating ducts. Captain [Jasper T.] Acuff's replenishment escort carriers did pretty well. Flames broke out on the flight deck of Cape Esperance at 1228 but were overcome; Kwajalein made
3225-562: The flag of commander, Service Force, 6th Fleet , and the flag of commander, Destroyer Flotilla 6 . She also served as flagship for commander, Destroyer Force, Atlantic . She served in this role as flagship and tender up through 1963. From 1970 to 1974, the Cascade was forward deployed to the Mediterranean, homeported in Naples Italy. When was in the port of Naples Cascade was used even like
3300-593: The fleet as it moved across the Pacific — with one service as fleet base while the second remained to the rear. As the fleet captured new sites the rear squadron would move to the front and act as fleet base. Service Squadron 4 was commissioned on 1 November 1943. The squadron was made up of 24 vessels and would be based in Funafuti Atoll. Cascade was the flagship for the squadron. The repair ships Phaon (ARB-3) and Vestal (AR-4) and 21 other ships comprised
3375-629: The front entrance of Danville High School in Danville, KY. The anchor has become a symbol of stability and security to all Danville Admirals. It keeps school spirit from drifting and stands as a constant reminder of admiral tradition. The anchor has been on loan from the Navy to DHS since it was placed. Cascade received one battle star for World War II service. Western Pipe and Steel Company 37°40′00″N 122°23′35″W / 37.66669°N 122.39315°W / 37.66669; -122.39315 The Western Pipe and Steel Company ( WPS )
3450-476: The interwar years. In this period the company also began to extend its operations into other regions. The Fresno factory was expanded and in the 1930s new operations were set up in the San Francisco peninsula, and at Grand Coulee and Seattle, Washington . Perhaps the biggest peacetime contract awarded to Western Pipe & Steel was for work on the Grand Coulee Dam project in the 1930s. Destined to become
3525-414: The isolated merchant vessels, sinking 25 of the convoy's 36 ships and putting PQ 17 into the history books as the greatest Russia-bound convoy loss of the war. One of the victims of the debacle was West Kader , then operating under the name of Pan Kraft . Pan Kraft was disabled by bombing near-misses and forced to be abandoned, after which she exploded and sank. The PQ 17 disaster proved so costly that
3600-429: The late 1970s). While all of these vessels were originally built with World War I service in mind, none were lost in that conflict, but of the nine which survived to see service in World War II, more than half were sunk by enemy action. Source: Mawdsley, pp. 95-114. While many of America's First World War emergency shipyards shut down at the end of the war, Western Pipe & Steel continued to grow its business in
3675-457: The loss of all 34 crew. Another ill-fated crew was that of American Leader (WPS Hull No. 58), who were collectively to endure no less than three ship sinkings during the Second World War. One of the five Type C1 vessels built by Western Pipe & Steel for its initial Maritime Commission contract, American Leader was delivered in July 1941 but only made a handful of voyages before being sunk by
3750-458: The naval base at Ulithi, with Admiral Nimitz, CINCPAC , in attendance at the court. Captain Herbert K. Gates was the judge advocate for the court. The court found that though Halsey had committed an "error of judgement" in sailing the Third Fleet into the heart of the typhoon, it stopped short of unambiguously recommending sanction. In January 1945, Halsey passed command of the Third Fleet to Admiral Raymond A. Spruance . This typhoon prompted
3825-486: The older Farragut -class and had been refitted with over 500 long tons (510 t) of extra equipment and armament, which made them top-heavy. Spence , Hull , and Monaghan either capsized or were sunk after water flooded down their smokestacks and disabled their engines. Without power, they were unable to control their heading and were at the mercy of the wind and seas. Hickox and Maddox pumped seawater into their empty fuel tanks, adding enough stability to ride out
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#17328513522023900-488: The postwar era. The company closed its Richmond operation in 1921 and moved the plant located there to the San Francisco shipyard, which now began building barges and pipes. During this period the company is reported to have built self-propelled fuel, gasoline and water barges, and both self-propelled and non-self-propelled covered lighters . The exact number is not known, but the company's hull number sequence suggests that as many as 34 such vessels may have been completed in
3975-457: The remaining three had the same length but a 6-foot (1.8 m) diameter. The twelve pump-inlet pipes were each 14 feet (4.3 m) in diameter. Fabrication of the pipes required more than nine miles (14 km) of heavy welds, and the experience gained was to help make Western Pipe & Steel a world leader in the field of automated welding technology by the outbreak of World War II - expertise that would be put to good use after commencement of
4050-504: The rest were scrapped by 1930. The remaining 10 vessels were fitted with triple expansion engines built by Joshua Hendy , a local San Franciscan company. The 2,800 horsepower (2,100 kW) Joshua Hendy plant proved much more reliable, and many of the vessels powered by this engine went on to have long careers (one of them in fact, the West Camargo , was to enjoy a remarkable service life of almost 60 years, finally being scrapped only in
4125-433: The smaller ships were completed, though few were built in time to see service in the war. All of the vessels were of riveted construction, in accordance with the available technology of the period. They had a length of 410 feet (120 m), a beam of 54 feet (16 m), a draft of 24 feet 2 inches (7.37 m), and a displacement of about 8000 tons. They ran on oil fuel and had a speed of 11 knots (20 km/h) and
4200-450: The squadron. On 21 November 1943 the Cascade arrived at Funafuti, where she remained until February 1944. During the stay at Funafuti the Cascade serviced numerous fleet vessels — including 10 destroyers and eight destroyer escorts. The second service squadron titled Service Squadron 10 was commissioned on 15 January 1944 at Pearl Harbor. After the capture of Kwajalein in February 1944
4275-405: The storm hit, the procedure had to be aborted. Damage to the fleet was severe. Some ships rolled more than 70 degrees. Three destroyers, Spence , Hickox , and Maddox , had nearly empty fuel stores (10–15% of capacity) and so lacked the stabilizing effect of the extra weight, making them relatively unstable. Additionally, several other destroyers, including Hull and Monaghan , were of
4350-459: The storm with relatively minor damage. Many other ships of TF 38 suffered various degrees of damage, especially to radar and radio equipment, which crippled communications within the fleet. Several carriers suffered fires in their hangars, and 146 aircraft were wrecked or blown overboard. Nine ships—including one light cruiser , three light carriers, and two escort carriers —suffered enough damage to be sent for repairs. The carrier Monterey
4425-440: The submarine USS Tang . Only five of the eighteen former American Leader crewmen on board survived the attack. In September of the same year, five of another party of nine former crewmates were killed aboard the Japanese hell ship Junyo Maru when she was torpedoed and sunk by HMS Tradewind . Other crewmembers died in Japanese captivity. Of the original 58-man crew of American Leader , only 28 returned home from
4500-443: The three days following Typhoon Cobra by other ships of the 3rd Fleet. The destroyer USS The Sullivans (DD-537) emerged from the storm undamaged and began looking for survivors before returning to Ulithi on Christmas Eve. In all, 93 men were rescued of the over 800 men presumed missing in the three ships, and two others who had been swept overboard from the escort carrier Anzio . Despite disobeying fleet orders, Plage
4575-490: The vessels listed below, the company also produced eleven 500-cubic-yard (380 m ) dump scows for the US Navy during the war. These vessels were produced at the San Francisco shipyard and were for use at Midway Island in the Pacific. Sources for this section: Maudsley pp. 115–179, Colton Company website, Hyperwar website, see References below. With the dropping of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima ,
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#17328513522024650-448: The war ended abruptly and the amount of work available to shipyards across America rapidly declined. The glut of vessels produced by US shipyards during the war now led to a shakeup in the industry with many shipyards closing and others consolidating their operations. In late 1945, shortly after the war, the Western Pipe & Steel Company was sold for a sum in excess of $ 6.2 million to Consolidated Steel of California, which in turn sold
4725-559: The war moved westward, Cascade followed, bringing her support close to the action areas. From November 1943, she was stationed successively at Kwajalein , Eniwetok , and Ulithi , while the ships she served ranged the Pacific , escorting convoys , screening carrier task forces , supporting invasions , and carrying out many other tasks with typical destroyer versatility. Cascade was the flagship of Service Squadron 4 in 1943. In June 1945, Cascade sailed to Okinawa , where she endured
4800-631: The war. Another of the World War I-era WPS ships, West Kader (WPS Hull No. 11), found a niche in history as part of Britain's disastrous Convoy PQ 17 in 1942. PQ 17 set out from Iceland for the Russian port of Arkhangelsk in June 1942. When the convoy commander was informed the German battleship Tirpitz was on course to intercept, he decided to split up the convoy with disastrous results. German U-boats and aircraft were able to easily pick off
4875-508: The whole of its existence, and eventually these technical problems would be overcome. The channel and the four shipping ways were completed in only three months, and the keel of the company's very first ship, Isanti , was laid on 30 November 1917. The first eight of the ships were fitted with General Electric steam turbines with a horsepower of 2500, but the plant proved unreliable and was subject to frequent breakdowns. Some of these vessels were lost at sea after foundering due to breakdown, and
4950-543: Was acquired by Japanese interests and subsequently sold for scrap, bringing to an end a remarkably long career of 58 years. The worst peacetime disaster to befall a WPS ship occurred to West Cadron (WPS Hull No. 12). Launched in 1920, she was renamed the Iowa in 1928, and foundered and sank near Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River (site of the notoriously treacherous Columbia Bar ) on 12 January 1936, with
5025-576: Was an American manufacturing company that is best remembered today for its construction of ships for the Maritime Commission in World War II. It also built ships for the U.S. Shipping Board in World War I and took part in the construction of the giant Grand Coulee Dam project in the 1930s. The origins of the company are somewhat obscure. It appears it was organized in Los Angeles, California around 1907 by two brothers named Talbot and possibly
5100-570: Was awarded the Legion of Merit by Halsey, and Tabberer' s crew was awarded Navy Unit Commendation ribbons (the first ever awarded). While conducting refueling operations off the Philippines, the Third Fleet remained on station rather than breaking up and seeking shelter from the storm. This led to a severe loss of men, ships, and aircraft. A Court of Inquiry was convened on board the USS Cascade at
5175-442: Was brought under control at 0945 and the C.O. , Captain Stuart H. Ingersoll, decided to let his ship lie dead in the water until temporary repairs could be effected. She lost 18 aircraft burned in the hangar deck or blown overboard and 16 seriously damaged, together with three 20-mm guns, and suffered extensive rupturing of her ventilation system. Cowpens lost 7 planes overboard and caught fire from one that broke loose at 1051, but
5250-472: Was headed towards the fleet, barometric pressures as low as 27.3 inHg (924 mbar ) were reported by USS Dewey . The storm dissipated on December 19. TF 38 consisted of 7 fleet carriers , 6 light carriers , 8 battleships , 15 cruisers , and about 50 destroyers . The carriers had been conducting raids against Japanese airfields in the Philippines, and ships were being refueled, especially many destroyers, which were running low on fuel. When
5325-404: Was launched in 1920 and enjoyed an active service life as a commercial cargo vessel between the wars. In 1942, the vessel was acquired by the US government and transferred to the USSR under lend-lease , where she was renamed Desna . After the war, Desna remained in service with the Soviet Union as a special cargo vessel for the transport of fish, a role she retained until 1978. In that year she
5400-427: Was nearly taken down in flames by its own airplanes as they crashed into bulkheads and exploded during violent rolls. One of those fighting the fires aboard Monterey was Lieutenant Gerald Ford , later President of the United States . Ford later recalled nearly going overboard when 20° and greater rolling caused aircraft below decks to careen into each other, igniting a fire. Ford, serving as General Quarters Officer of
5475-509: Was reported stranded in breakers northwest of Terschelling Island , the Netherlands . She subsequently broke up and was reported a total loss on 19 June 1920, having provided a mere six months of active service. The WPS ship with the longest service life was probably West Camargo (WPS Hull No. 16), another vessel built under the US Shipping Board's World War I contract. Fitted with the much more reliable Joshua Hendy triple expansion engine, she
5550-420: Was the 23rd and last known Western Pacific tropical cyclone formed during the 1944 season . On December 17, 1944, the typhoon was first observed when United States Third Fleet was refueling. U.S. Army Air Force forecast center on Saipan sent a reconnaissance flight and found the storm heading towards the fleet, with the estimated winds of 140 kn (160 mph; 72 m/s; 260 km/h). As it
5625-485: Was the salvage of a Russian nuclear submarine which had sunk in the mid-Pacific. Many of the details concerning this operation are still secret. In 1983, the site was sold to a commercial developer. Little evidence now remains of the shipyard which once existed there. Many of the ships built by Western Pipe & Steel were inevitably destined to relatively uneventful careers. Many of the Type C3 vessels, for example, played
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