USS Vestal - Guide 356
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2023
- The Vestal, a collier-turned-repair ship of the United States, is today's subject.
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Pinned post for Q&A :)
Would you consider a Wednesday video on the Vestal? Considering her vital service and how her service greatly affected the war effort, I feel there's a lot more to her story here, as well as how she went about it.
I recently saw a comment where someone talked about a relative of theirs in the Royal Navy who was stationed aboard a US battleship in WW2 as a link between the navies, how common was this sort of thing and what would sailors such as this get up to when stationed on the warship of an ally?
tough little ship^^
Was she considered a warship? Did she receive battlehonors?
It's *just* outside the era, but is there a chance you can cover the IFS Carronade? Maybe as part of greater coverage on rocket ships?
How many repair ships are needed per combat vessels to run a fleet effectively?
Fun fact. When Enterprise was deployed to the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Some of Vestal’s crew along with Seabees from Company B of the 3rd construction Battalion were dragged along for the ride. As a result Vestal was also included in the Presidential Unit Citation awarded to Enterprise.
She deserved it tbh. It would seem like Vestal herself was responsible for keeping about half the fleet afloat single-handed. The auxiliaries and support elements often get overlooked when it comes to fame and awards so glad to see a workhorse like Vestal got the recognition she deserved
Vestal kept the Enterprise in Guadalcanal when no other carrier was available.
@@hammer1349amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics. You are correct.
@@Subpac_ww2true professionals know that logistics are always part of tactics.
Unlike *"other"* repair ships, this one wasn't easily spooked by torpedo boats
::Hurls a pair of binoculars into sea in your direction:: Absurd!
LOL, She was a "Vestal", not a "vacuous strumpet." 😁
@@tombogan03884Insert profanity laced tirade here and Drach stating that Admiral Rosesvensky was angry
@@tombogan03884 'Vacuous Strumpet' is likely Vestal's name for Enterprise after the 13th major repair session.
@@tombogan03884 I thought it was "Slutty old geezer?"
Vestal: "Right Enterprise, thats you fixed up again, can you please try and not get hit for a bit longer this time?"
Enterprise: "No promises."
Vestal: "At least try and not fight the whole Japanse Navy yourself this time."
Enterprise: "Again no promisies."
Vestal (Sighing heavily): "What am i going to do with you?"
Vestal: ENTERPRISE NOO!!
Enterprise: ENTERPRISE YES!!
Enterprise: "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! WAAAAGHHH!"
Vestal: "oh damnit. let me get my tools."
Enterprise is gonna Enterprise. That's how Enterprise do.
I get the reference @@colormedubious4747
“Fate protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise."
Vestal really is one of the unsung heroes of the Pacific War. She should have been a museum ship after her service.
Both her and enterprise should have been saved.
@@jamesbuckner4791 Absolutely.
At least she received her marker at her berth in Hawaii
Auxillaries are never considered for museum ships. It would have been cool if she had been saved. Or even a few Landing Ship types or a Fleet Oiler.
@@TrickiVicBB71 USS Hoga (ship and crew got a personal citation of Nimitz for their heroic actions on and after the 7th december) a harbour tug at pearl harbor was converted into a firefighting ship for Oakland after WW2.
In here second career as City of Oakland she also became heroic, fighting bigg blazes in very difficult situations
She is still with us as a museum ship
In the book "Day of Infamy" by Walter Lord, he tells how, after climbing back aboard the Vestal, Captain Young found some of his crew preparing to abandon ship and famously roared, "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
A side note, for those who may not know, Captain Cassin Young of the Vestal was himself honored by having a Fletcher-Class Destroyer named after him which is now, in a fun turn of fate, Anchored at the Boston Navy Yard as a museum ship, just down the dock from USS Constitution.
I highly recommend touring USS Cassin Young. In her own way, she's as fascinating as Old Ironsides.
I had always wondered who the namesake of USS Cassin Young was. Today, the question was answered. Young's swim and actions were recognized w/ the Medal of Honor, then he got a Navy Cross posthumously commanding USS San Francisco.
And just before I went to research the origin of Cassin Young myself.
Possibly interesting side fact: The one _San Francisco_ bridge officer who survived the hit that killed Captain Young (and everyone else on the bridge) was the signals officer, Lieutenant Commander Bruce McCandless, who commanded the ship for the rest of the engagement and earned his own Medal of Honor in the process. In 1984, his son Bruce II was the astronaut who carried out the first untethered spacewalk, which produced what is probably the second most famous photo of an American astronaut after the one of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.
Young, commanding San Francisco, was overheard by McCandless telling Adm Callaghan that the battle they were about to enter was "a suicide mission".
He was right. Both were killed.
An interesting fact about Cassin Young. He was a career submariner who was passed over for submarine squadron command while he was Executive Officer at Submarine Base New London. He was “surfaced” in the submariner parlance of the time, and went on to command Vestal, was awarded the CMoH, promoted to Captain, and killed commanding USS San Francisco during the Solomons Campaign.
Should have been mentioned in the narrative. Plus who were her crew Navy or a mix of Navy and civilians?
The USS Pensacola was one of the most impressive patching ups the Vestal had to do. After the Battle of Tassafaronga, the ship’s stern was dangling off the ship after being torpedoed. The Vestal’s crew managed to patch up the hole and remove excess debris so the ship could reach Pearl Harbor.
The Captain swam back to his ship through burning oil , bombs , machine gun bullets and climbed up the side ( 40 ft ) of a burning sinking ship to take command . Giants , we walk in the footprints of giants .
We are mere men, living in the shadow of legends past, present and future. And no man shall ever forget this fact. Honoring their legacies, keeping their memories intact... those are but the most basic debts we owe them.
My uncle was serving aboard a repair ship off Okinawa during the Spring of 1945. They were posted in the Kerma Islands - which were just off Okinawa - and they had non-stop work patching up ships that were damaged by the kamikazes. He told me that in addition to the work they were engaged in, they were on the constant outlook for any kamikazes. I don't remember what ship he was on. My uncle is passed away now; maybe one of my cousins have paperwork showing what ship he served on. Perhaps it was the Vestal?
What a nice tribute to a naval vessel (as well as a class of ships) that are seldom mentioned.
You may be able to get the information from the National Archives. The HQ in Maryland might be able to find information about the ship if you can provide as much information about your grandfather as possible, which you might be able to get from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO if they survived the 1970s fire.
@@edwardloomis887 Thanks for the tip.... I'll check that out!
@@josephstevens9888Update us if you find anything!
My son works at the Records Center, told me that many documents from the fire are singed around the edges, but still mostly readable. Of course, many were completely destroyed. Good luck to you if you decide to research.
@@josephstevens9888good luck to you in your research.
I'm very glad to see a review of a non-warship USN auxiliary vessel. My Dad was a Quartermaster on the USS Antares, AKS-3, a cargo/repair ship. Without all the little auxiliaries, no navy can function for long. Thank you, and Cheers!
Agreed, the service and support ships need more love.
My dad served in an attack cargo vessel, USS Aquarius, AKA 16. It was a navel vessel, commanded by navy leadership, staffed by a Coast Guard crew. There about 2.5 photos of the I could ever find. Not a glamour job I suppose, but yes, support vessels of all types are just as necessary for major navies to properly operate far from home.
@billkraemer4710 , have you visited both the NHHC and Coast Guard historian websites? Also, the National Archives main website has USS Aquarius' war diary scanned into accessible digital format. Another great, hard-working ship and her crew. The Coast Guard angle is interesting. I've been amazed how often Coasties show up in a variety of roles. Semper Paratus.
I'm shocked you've never covered this ship before! The Enterprise's favourite little companion. 😁
You could say she's technically Enterprise's nurse... or the US Pacific Fleet's best nurse maybe...
The Yorktowns’ favourite companion/nurse but yeah Enterprise’s most of all.
"Dammit you little masochist! I just fixed that shit!"
@@champagnegascogne9755I agree on the nurse thing, since she “fixes” her comrades
And also gets into a rant on another enterprise wind she needs to heal on to of others she is overseeing, poor poor vestal
"little"?!?
Thank you for covering some other ships. I did 20 years in the Navy as a machinist. One command was USS Vulcan (AR-5) she was built in 1941 and I was stationed onboard in 1991 during Desert Storm. She was at the time the oldest ship in the Navy and we flew the Gadston flag in port. She did get her start in WWII in the Pacific. Again, thank you for covering a different (but important)kind of ship.
Thank you for your service.I served aboard the Eisenhower-CVN-69 during Desert Storm.
Don’t you mean the Fist Navy Jack?
She looked good in her Dazzle camouflage scheme.
She did honourable service, respect to her and her crew.
Hey its Enterprise's little BFFE.
i like to imagine her personality is that of a slightly exasperated coffee addicted mechanic.
"you broke WHAT? AGAIN? WE JUST PATCHED THAT UP LAST WEEK!"
Such an unceremonious end for a ship who served her country so well.
Well done Vestal! You won't be forgotten.
Vestal literally did several orders of magnitude more to help the US war effort than all 10 American fast battleships combined (not that this is pretty hard, given the general strategic failing of all battleships built around that time by all navies). We could have sacrificed North Carolina, Alabama, Massachusetts and all four Iowas in exchange for having Vestal still with us-she was FAR more useful and significant than all of them put together.
@@bkjeong4302 USS Washington has entered the chat..... (Some of the others were useful for shore bombardment and as shell catchers, which was quite useful indeed)
@@bkjeong4302Aside from usefullness , who would want to visit a Repair ship than a Battleship tho.
@@scottgiles7546
Shore bombardment could easily have been (and in WWII routinely was) covered by the Standards or subcapital units. There was no justifiable reason for anyone to build new battleships in WWII just to use them as gigantic monitors.
As “shell catchers”? What are you even talking about? None of the fast battleships ever managed to divert enemy attention away from other, more valuable ships, or tank hits for those ships. Not to mention that you’re missing the entire point of why these ships were built in the first place, which was to serve as capital ships (because that’s literally the only thing that would justify an investment as big as building a new battleship), which they almost universally failed at with the exception of Washington’s one-off success at Second Guadalcanal (which still failed to stop the Japanese from landing troops that night, and the Japanese were only stopped from resupplying by aircraft the morning after that engagement).
@@issacfoster1113
People who care about ships that were actually useful rather than ships that were massively overblown by poor research and false narratives?
Little did the Japanese flyers at Pearl Harbor know that USS Vestal should have been marked as a high value target, perhaps higher than any of the battleships.
They also passed over the fleet tanker Neosho, which was fully loaded with oil and avgas for carrier support duties. One pilot strafing the battleships pulled up and stopped shooting at the tanker because he "didn't want to waste ammo" on her. Had the Japanese bombed the drydocks and repair yards and oil storage fields, the US Navy would have been forced to fall back to the West Coast, and many of the sunken ships might not have been refloated.
@@richardm3023 Right. Worst target selection ever.
@@elcastorgrande Nah, they had their targets planned out well for their plans. They were just unfortunately about to learn that the IJN's plans were not necessarily going to be followed by the USN.
Things like the repair yards, the oil tank farm and the dry docks were supposed to be the targets of the planned 2nd strike wave.
Admiral Nagumo felt that since the element of surprise had been lost, a 2nd strike would lead to heavy losses amongst the aircrew and cancelled the 2nd strike.
Yamamoto later said "Events have shown it was a mistake not to have ordered a 2nd strike against Pearl Harbour ".
@@richardcowling7381 there were two waves. The plan called for 3. Nagumo was always regarded as too timid for the command of the carrier strike forces, but his seniority and political connections kept him in the post.
My great uncle was a chief petty officer machinist who served on Vestal throughout the Pacific campaign. His Navy N1 deck jacket has been worn and passed down thru 3 generations and I keep it today for my son when he grows a little bigger. Thank you so much for recognizing a ship which is too little known.
One of the most cost effective vessels I’ve personally ever heard about.
My Pharmacist Mate father was overjoyed with his orders to the Vestal in 1932, which meant he could enjoy life with his new illegal wife, (by Navy rules). Upon arrival his orders were change to the CV-2. With no time in port, my mother returned to his family. Years later, serving on the Utah, he became friends with W.D. Collie, (see AE-11) StoreKeeper on the Vestal. Collie surviived Pearl Harbor, however did not survive the war. He named his son D. Cassin Collie. Narragansett Bay
This has to be the definition of an unsung hero.
Thank you for covering a support repair ship, the unsung heroes of the Navy.
Nobody ever says thank you to the men who engaged in these difficult and dreary tasks. Their efforts helped win the war as much as anything else. It would be nice to give them some recognition. If you do difficult wearying tasks that save lives over and over and over, and you continue to give your best every day, you are a different kind of hero but you are definitely a hero. My thanks to any veterans of this type of service who are reading this.
How kickass of a captain do you have to be *gets blown into burning water by explosion* Shit gotta get back and get this tub moving. *ship sinks* alright guys get to work, we need to make room for the others. A true navy man if I've ever seen one.
You'd almost think he was a Chief.
@@erichammer2751 nah, just a Captain.
Finally! We get a video on the best repair ship and Enterprise's constant companion.
Captain Young received the Medal of Honor for his actions at Peral Harbor and was later killed while commanding the San Francisco at Guadalcanal.
Until now I never knew where the name USS Cassin Young came from. Thanks Drach
"Physician, heal thyself." - USS _Vestal,_ December 1941
It would have been awesome if she could have been saved an moored against another museum ship she had made repairs to. Her and Enterprise would have made a amazing museum.
The pearl harbour bit of this is really amazing. The captain and crew were special.
Given the proximity at arizona and the lables on her moorings at pearl, i had assumed she was destroyed as well. While not covered in glory, like her more bellicose cousins, he4 service was just as vital and honorable.
I spent 4 years on staff at Great Lakes IL during the early 1980s and had the honor of working with a man who had been serving aboard Vestal on Dec 7 and witnessed Arizona's explosion "from too damned close" as he put it, suffering primarily 2nd degree burns on his arms and losing his eyebrows for a time. A very interesting gent.
Unsung heroes crewed by more unsung heroes, we can all name Battleships, Carriers, Submarines etc but these brave ships and crews go mainly unknown, forgotten and unappreciated. Well done for speaking up for a great ship and her invaluable role perhaps we might give a thought to her modern day replacements who might also be overlooked?
Thanks for the review of this under-appreciated ship and crew. Battleships and carriers get the press, but the heroics of the support ships should not be forgotten.
The Ars were floating factories, schools and carried just about everything to fix any problem. USS Ajax AR6 was my ship including some time off Vietnam.
Ajax was my first duty station in 1982. Served in the shipfitter shop 11A before transferring to engineering Auxiliaries Division.
Was on board in 71. Shipfitter Sheetmetal. @@robertburke2570
*Slowly pulls vestal into a hug*
Thanks again for terrific content Drach.The 'fleet trains' must hold many interesting tales.
The CO of the Vestal, then Cdr Cassin Young, USN, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Pearl Harbor. He was also posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the Guadalcanal Campaign as the Commanding Officer of the USS San Fransisco (CA-38) (On 13 November 1942, during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, he commanded his ship in action with a superior Japanese force and was killed by enemy shells while closely engaging the battleship Hiei.)
Grade school friend's dad was dentist on the Vestal during WW II. I remember he always laughed at the scary or gory parts when we watched horror movies.
Every Badass ship always need a repair ship.
- Enterprise -
Sad end for a very interesting ship . Thank you for remembering her service.
Better than rusting away forgotten in some neglected naval muesum.
Nice video
Vesta was one of the many unsung heroes of the war, doing the very much needed but far less reported roles that were essential to any fleet.
Wonder if the crew ever groaned at a 'repeat' customer ship coming back for more repairs saying "Damn it, we just patched you up"
Ah yes, Enterprise's personal repair ship. The others are just extra
If some of the stories about her crew patching up Yorktown between Coral Sea and Midway are true. She’s basically the entire class’s repair ship/ babysitter.
@@ph89787I'd say the Yorktown-Class Personal Nurse
It sounds like this crew were very good at their job and had the right ship to do it. Very useful combination.
She shouldn't have been scraped, she should have been put up as museum ship, brilliant video thank you
Vestal, looking at North Carolina get preserved in spite of being far less important and doing nothing significant:
I am consistently awed by the bravery and tenacity of second-line servicemen in various navies. In this case, in spite of the fact that her own ship and crew had been viciously battered by the attack, Vestal righted herself and then immediately returned to keep on rescuing and repairing ships until the very end of the war.
Great video - I like to hear more of this kind of vessels. I think the role of the "repair-and-maintain-people" is so often underestimated in history. Please more videos on this topic!
You know, something interesting for you to do from here on would be to have a segment at the end talking a little about whats left of the ships if any. Any pieces on display anywhere, any tdaces they left on the world that are still there and so on.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Vestal's lathes and machine shop gear (and other things) is still in US Navy inventory at some repair facility or shipyard, remembering how the Navy liked to keep all that old equipment - much of it still being used, but occasionally in some corner of the building 'just in case'.
Should do a short guide on the Lee A Tregurtha. It was named Chiwawa during ww2 and converted to a great lakes freighter post war and is still serving the lakes for the Interlake Steamship Co.
They still fly the battle ribbons and battle star and was in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered.
My Dad (a Pearl Harbor survivor) was assigned to the USS Dobbin a destroyer tender on Dec. 7 1941. He was a machinist mate and helped repair many ships and other equipment.
USS Vestal is the ship equivalent to an ER doctor or Field Surgeon for ships.
Submarines maybe Stealthy and Cunning
Cruisers and Destroyers Dashing and Fast.
Battleships and Carriers are Powerfull and Impressive.
But Repairships, often the unsong hero, can't avoid being admired, for the service they provide to other ships.
🤔🤔🤔
USS Prairie AD-15, specifically a destroyer tender. In 1977 we off loaded spare 5 inch barrels for 5" 38s mounts that had been delivered to the ship in 1944. Quite the scene as 30 foot by 10 foot lift-away hatch covers were remove from the 02 level to the 4th deck by the boat crane on the 02 level. In 1940 during building trails she made 19.8 knots, .2 knots faster than designed that earned the builder an extra 200,000$. In 1975 coming back from WesPac, on 'the' speed run we made 18.5kts pretty good for a 35 years old ship. 400# main steam, open bottom boilers firing on black oil. Story onboard that in 1940 she patched up the HMS Ajax after her tangle with Graf Spee.
An oft overlooked class of ship, as indeed are many logistical support ships. Particularly impressive just how long she served, to have been launched and retrofitted before WWI and still be serving after WWII.
One of the IJN's equivalents, AKASHI, was equally as fun to build in 1:700 scale; that I can tell ya....
Thank you, Drach !!
🚬😎👍
Oh yeah I saw that post...the question is how many gems did it cost you?
@@axlexe8639 Kit ? $40. USD. Aftermarket stuff/photo etch ? Another $25., roughly.
BS Press Profile Morskie AKASHI monograph from Poland another $20. off of eBay. I make complete replicas- as close as I can, versus a model kit... Some take me as long as 9 months to build up. My upcoming Trumpeter 1:700 USS KITTY HAWK will take at least a year with all the aftermarket trimmings.
Thanks for asking !!
🚬😎👍
My Grandfather and his two older brothers served aboard this ship during WW2. Grandad joined her crew in January 1942 but both his older brothers witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor from her deck. The middle brother was thrown overboard twice from the explosions, because his action post was the forward lookout position. The middle brother also claimed it was the chief of the boat that saved the ship not the captain.
What a triumph of resource application. She was converted from an unnecessary role to an entirely new one just when it was needed. Then she proved her worth through decades of productive service. Literally to her very end.
Excellent coverage of a unit that exemplified the critical contributions of those not considereded "front line warriors".
Another unusual auxiliary you might consider USS Patoka-navy oiler converted to mobile/floating airship mooring base.
Thanks. I think auxiliary ships have been a bit overlooked here. They’re not exciting and don’t win battles, but they can be quite important too.
The tug that pulled the Vestal free from Arizona was the Hoga. She did quite a lot that day and in the days following the attack. You can still see her today as a museum ship in Little Rock.
The USN's MVP of WWII.
Holy shit, at last Drach covers my favorite of all unsung heroes from the pacific fleet. The Vestal is by far one of my favorite ships around and has been since I first learned of her.
I think this is one of my favorite 5 minute guides. Wish you had said just a bit more about Cassin Young.
Great episode! I served on the USS Vulcan (AR-5) , 1972-75. Good times.
Love hearing stories about the unsung support ships, I have often wondered about how many ships had their bow blown clean off and eventually returning to duty.
I've always been interested in the support vessels, from Vestal to Sacramento and beyond. They all have stories
Its very easy to concentrate on the Fighting ships... but without the "Fleet train" they would be completely unable to operate... Excellent coverage of a vitally important if unsung ship.
Vestal is also a small city in upstate New York, just outside Binghamton along the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers. The SUNY Binghamton campus is actually in Vestal, not Binghamton.
Enterprise just wanted to visit her favorite repair shop multiple times.
I was surprised to discover the vestal survived the war.
Captains Young's actions on December 7th resulted in him being awarded the Medal of Honor,
as well as having a destroyer named for him.
He died on November the 13th 1942, at Guadalcanal,
while in command of the USS San Francisco.
He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for that action.
My Father, Ed Jones served on her as signal man on her return to west coast and his trip home at wars end.
Ahh the Anti Kamchatka. This one should be good!
Great video- unsung hero ship, would love to see more stories on the USN services squadrons in the Pacific.
Watching mr szymanski vidios and yours all the time it pains me that this ship was not preserved as a museum. She could be emplyed as working vessel cruisig between various museum ships with paying volounters to perform minor repairs on them, ie repainting hulls to some more complex repairs. Curator szymanski would be in heaven 😂😂😂😂
What an amazing contribution this largely forgotten ship made!
Great video on a ship very useful but rarely shown!
I do believe these are the only pictures I have seen of her other then above shots beside Arizona
Yes, usually "... moored next to Arizona..." is all the coverage she gets. I really enjoyed this one.
My father was an underaged sailor aboard the USS Midas (ARB-5) from 1944 until 1946. Converted from LST to repair ship. Pops was assigned to the galley.
Of the replacement intro sounds, this is by far my favourite.
It is good to remember that the fella with the oil can is just as important as the fella pointing the guns (otherwise they would not work). Thanks.
Since I live near the town of Vestal in New York state, the ship's name in my RUclips feed certainly caught my eye. I don't know much about these types of auxiliaries so thanks for the video.
This humble auxiliary saw more action than many ships of the line. 😀
When I was at Recruit Training Command at Great Lakes, my division was charged with helping "run" the graduation ceremonies. My job was the quarterdeck watch, so I got to salute and greet at the VIPs (e.g. COMSEVENTHFLT, etc). During the Friday grad ceremony closest to Veteran's Day, they had the members of the local (Chicago) chapter of the VFW as that day's VIPs.
As people were coming into the hall, I noticed this is older gentleman waking with his daughter. He was wearing his VFW garrison cap, with the words "USS Vestal" embroidered on its side. Above that script, he has his Purple Heart ribbon.
It then struck me, as I saw him walk with a noticeable limp, that this man's war might have very well began and ended in the same day. Moored on the port side of the USS Arizona, I can't imagine the hell he went through in those hours and the sights he had seen.
After the ceremony, I got the opportunity to exchange a few quick words with him. I was honored to do so.
Sir, whenever you are now, I hope you know nothing but pure peace.
Thanks again for doing a video on the USS Vestal. The heroic actions of her captain and crew at Pearl Harbor and in many other occasions during WW2 deserved to be remembered. Thanks again Drach!
Besides fixing up ships of all sizes through hard work and skill, they still found enough time to run out a championship Baseball team of crew members. The Vestal Virgins. Fleet champs
Thank-you for the story of this unsung hero.
A brave little ship that earned a place in history and a burth next to Arizona back where she was on 12/07/1941 and deserved to be as a museum in honor of the men who served in her, but sadly she did not get the fate she had earned.
We often overlook the fact that a ship doesn't always need to use guns or torpedoes to play a vital role in defeating the enemy... what a fitting honer it would been if the Vestal could have been saved as a memorial ship keeping watch over the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor
A lovely thought I very much approve of. And I'm not even an American ;-)
Seeing the vestal parked where she was on that fateful day would put some perspective on what cpt cassin young had to do to save the ship.
Captain Cassin Young is an absolute Legend. Salute to you sir, and thank you Drach for covering this amazing (and amazingly brave) ship.
Surprised you never covered her. The only other repair ship on this channel is Kamchatka…
I presume Akashi is coming eventually?
Kamchatka: "Is that a torpedo boat?!"
Akashi: 😑
Thank you for mentioning USS Vestal. I've always had a soft spot for her. She was a ship that could and did a great many things even if humble. They broke them she fixed them.
Thanks. I knew that she was right next to the _Arizona_ and knew that she was "sunk" but nothing beyond that. Very interesting to hear about her service.
Yes - handy little ships to have around. They and the various Tenders gave good service. Some of my Uncles served on (I believe) a Destroyer Tender. I used to know the name but have forgotten and those Uncles are gone now.
.
From a collier to a repair ship, won presidential unit citation even when she's not present in battles. Spoiler: her repair crews were onboard carrier Enterprise during Solomons Campaign.
This was my uncles ship. Being an electrician, he was rewinding Arizona’s electrical motors.
He was in the shower getting ready to go ashore when the attack happened. Getting wounded in the leg.
Beyond that, me and my family don’t know anything further.
as he refused to ever talk about what happened during the war
Such an interesting history with the upgrades extending her utility and time afloat. A pity that economics was her final downfall. Thank you for sharing her story.
There was a story about a Vestal crew member whose gun was taken out of action and he noted that on Arizona there were some crewmen in the aft of the ship I believe in the aft rangefinder they had gone there to get away from the fires. He was commanded to cut the rear houser away from Arizona so they could get underway. Instead he found a rope long enough and after a few tries was able to get it to the Arizona. The crewmen then crawled hand over hand to the Vestal. He was reprimanded because he did do as ordered, but he saved a number of men who surly would have died. The story was on an episode of remembering December 7 and if I remember correctly one of the survivors from Arizona was the last surviving sailor who had been on her on December 7. He told that story and the sailor who had thrown the rope was also there.
It was a sailor on the Vestal that helped save the last living survivors of the Arizona.
She's "The Little Ship That Could".
"Could what?"
Anything that didn't require chucking shells at the enemy.
The other hero of the Enterprise saga.
USS Ajax AR-6 was the first ship of 7 I served in during my Navy career. She was my home from 1973-1975. I worked in 38A, Lower Machine Shop.
Well done, Vestal! Without ships like these, we would have had a much harder time with the war in the Pacific. Thank you for sharing, Drac!