USS VESTAL (AR-4)......and Cassin Young Synopsis: When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941, the repair ship VESTAL was tied up to the ill-fated USS ARIZONA (BB-39). The VESTAL was badly damaged by enemy bombs and the cataclysmic explosion that destroyed the ARIZONA that day. Commander Cassin Young, the VESTAL's commanding officer, was blown overboard when the ARIZONA exploded, but managed to return to his ship and direct efforts that successfully resulted in preventing her from sinking. After being repaired by her own crew, VESTAL served the fleet for the entirety of America's participation in World War II. In recognition of his heroism, courage and leadership in the heat of battle, Commander Young received the Medal of Honor and a promotion to the rank of Captain. Unfortunately, a little less than a year later, he was killed in combat while commanding a heavy cruiser. VESTAL - the Collier: The USS VESTAL was originally to have been named ERIE and she was given the designation Fleet Collier No. 1. She was also the lead ship in a class of two vessels that were authorized in 1904. However, she was renamed VESTAL in 1905, well before her keel was laid at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in March of 1907. VESTAL was 465 feet long and had a beam of 60 feet. Her full load displacement, initially, was 12,585 tons. She was propelled by three coal-fired boilers and a pair of triple expansion reciprocating engines that produced a total of 7,500 shaft horsepower. Her twin propellers gave her a top speed of 16 knots. In her original configuration she carried no armament.
She was launched May 19, 1908, and placed in service - but not commissioned - at her builders' yard on October 4, 1909. For the first few years of her service life, she had a civilian crew that numbered 90. Between 1909 and 1912, VESTAL provided coal to naval vessels in the Atlantic; mostly along the eastern seaboard. She did make one voyage to Europe for that purpose. The following image depicts Fleet Collier No. 1 during that time. Coaling ships was a very dirty business. Often, her cargo had to be manhandled from barges into her cargo holds while she lay at anchor. When this task was completed, both ship and crew were coated with coal dust. The VESTAL was taken out of service in October of 1912. She then spent nearly a year at the Boston Navy Yard being converted to a fleet repair ship. 2
VESTAL - the Repair Ship: She retained her name, but almost all of her coal handling equipment was removed. Former cargo holds were converted into repair shops and storage spaces, and her living quarters were greatly expanded to accomodate a complement of about 600 officers and enlisted men. A small number of anti-aircraft weapons were installed for defense purposes. The following photograph reflects how she appeared after being placed in commission as the USS VESTAL (Repair Ship No. 4) on September 3, 1913. Between 1913 and the spring of 1917, VESTAL relocated to Pensacola, Florida which served as a base of operations for her duties as a repair ship. She served the fleet in that area and off Vera Cruz, Mexico for several months, after the United States occupied that city in 1914. She then moved up the Atlantic seaboard and operated in the New England area until the spring of 1917, when America entered World War I. VESTAL sailed overseas again, this time to provide repair and overhaul services for a fleet of American destroyers operating out of Queenstown, Northern Ireland. In 1919, following the end of hostilities, she returned home. For the next six years, she served the Atlantic Fleet. When the Navy instituted a fleet-wide assignment of alphanumeric hull numbers in 1920, VESTAL was given the designation AR-4. In 1925, she was converted from a coal-burning to an oil-fired vessel. That same year, she assisted in the recovery of the submarine USS S-51, which had been rammed and sunk. 3
In 1927, she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and operated out of San Diego, California for a decade. In the spring of 1940, when the Pacific Fleet made Pearl Harbor its base of operations, VESTAL and other service vessels tagged along. On December 6, 1941, she tied up alongside the USS ARIZONA (BB-39), which was one of several capital ships moored to quays in 'battleship row'. AR-4's assignment for the following week was to have been to provide routine maintenance services to the battlewagon. That never transpired. VESTAL - the Survivor: Shortly before 0800 hours on December 7, 1941, a peaceful Sunday morning at Pearl Harbor was shattered when the Japanese commenced their dastardly attack. The crew of AR-4 had been up since 0630, already had breakfast and was preparing to muster at 0800. That never happened, either. At 0755, VESTAL went to General Quarters as bomb splashes towered over the battleship ARIZONA, left, and the much smaller repair ship. By 0805, her 3-inch dual purpose weapon, under the direct command of her skipper, Commander Cassin Young had commenced firing at the attacking enemy aircraft. Other crew members raced to man the repair ship's smaller anti-aircraft guns and her engineering department fired up her boilers in preparation for getting underway. About that same time, two bombs that had undoubtedly been intended for ARIZONA struck AR-4. One hit on the port side, forward, penetrated three decks and exploded in a storeroom, starting a fire that threatened the ship's forward ammunition magazine. VESTAL's damage control personnel fought that fire and also, as a precaution, flooded the threatened magazine. The second bomb hit on the starboard side, aft, and penetrated all the way to the ship's hold. When it exploded, it created a large, irregular hole about five feet in diameter in the ship's bottom. Harbor water, streaked with oil rushed in to several spaces. The VESTAL immediately began to list to starboard, away from the ARIZONA; putting a strain on her mooring lines. Sailors experienced in repair work shored up damaged bulkheads and worked to stem the tide of flooding. 4
At about 0810, a bomb penetrated deep down inside ARIZONA and exploded in that vessel's forward main battery magazine. Instantly, the huge amount of ammunition stored there detontated, destroying the battleship and killing the majority of her crew. The force of that massive blast knocked the VESTAL's 3-inch gun crew overboard; including her commanding officer, Cassin Young. Commander Young, soaking wet, covered with fuel oil but uninjured, swam back to his ship and climbed onboard, utilizing an accomodation ladder that had been lowered on Saturday for use by personnel going ashore by boat. He quickly asended to the bridge and discovered that someone, in a panic, had given an abandon ship order. Commander Young quickly and firmly countermanded that order and told the bridge watch: "Lads, we're getting this ship underway". The VESTAL's damage control personnel were hard pressed to deal with the fire forward, numerous additional fires created aft when the ARIZONA exploded, and flooding that was causing the repair ship's list to steadily worsen. At 0845, Commander Young coolly and calmly ordered his crew to cut the taut mooring lines holding the VESTAL captive alongside the fiercely burning remains of the ARIZONA by using axes. Once freed from those restraints, and with the assistance of a harbor tug, AR-4 moved slowly away from the inferno that had been one of America's mightiest battleships. VESTAL's engineers had managed to get up enough steam to help maneuver the ship, in spite of her damage. Still under continuous air attack by Japanese aircraft, Commander Young briefly anchored his command in 35 feet of water while his crew fought both fires and flooding, and tended to wounded shipmates. When the VESTAL's draft, aft and her starboard list continued to increase, he decided on a further course of action. 5
His after-action report reads thusly: "Because of the unstable condition of the ship, being on fire in several places and the possibility of further attacks, it was decided to ground the ship". By 0950, VESTAL had been run aground in shallow water across the harbor from battleship row. Commander Young's decision prevented AR-4 from sinking in the channel. Once her fires were extinguished, repair parties from VESTAL were dispatched to the overturned hull of the battleship OKLAHOMA (BB-37). Clambering about precariously, they cut holes in the warship's bottom in a frantic attempt to reach men trapped inside when she had capsized. Their efforts, while not entirely successful, did manage to reach 32 sailors and pull them to safety. When they had done all they could, VESTAL's crew members returned to their own grounded ship to start repair work. When the attack ended, Pearl Harbor was a smoke-shrouded scene of widespread carnage. In addition to the serious bomb damage suffered by VESTAL, seven of her crew were killed that day. It was a miracle that more sailors onboard AR-4 were not killed. However, many of her crew that had been topside that day were wounded by flying debris from ARIZONA's explosion. Because the Pearl Harbor naval yard personnel were ordered to give priority to damaged warships, the VESTAL's crew had to do much of the repair work on their own ship. Eventually, she was able to enter a dry dock and have her bombdamaged bottom restored. The Rest of the War: In August of 1942, she proceeded to an advanced base in the South Pacific to provide emergency repairs to American warships engaged in fierce battles with the enemy. Anchored in an unimproved island harbor, her crew completed 963 repair jobs on 58 ships over a span of 60 days. Those numbers were soon eclipsed as VESTAL's crew worked for months without relief to patch up battle-damaged carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers. Many of those vessels later played key roles in numerous battles. As the war progressed, she was relocated several times, each time moving closer and closer to Japan. On one occasion members of AR-4's crew continued working on repairs to the USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6) as she steamed into battle. 6
Many American warships suffered major structural damage during the war, and VESTAL's repair specialists were continually called upon to patch them up enough to enable them to limp back to Pearl Harbor. One of the most outstanding examples of the salvage work performed by VESTAL's skilled repair crews involved the PENSACOLA (CA-24). An enemy torpedo had extensively damaged the heavy cruiser's stern, which remained barely attached afterwards. Operating at an advanced base with limited repair capabilities, VESTAL's crew performed a minor miracle of salvage work; accomplishing tasks never before attempted. They cut away damaged hull structure. Her divers worked underwater to accomplish a large part of this work, which included removing the stricken cruiser's propellers to reduce drag so that the severely damaged warship could be towed back to Pearl Harbor. By mid-1944, the VESTAL was in need of a general overhaul herself. She was sent to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California where worn-out equipment was replaced, new capabilities were provided for her repair crews and her antiaircraft guns increased in number. In addition, she received a camouflage paint job before returning to the South Pacific. By May of 1945, she was moored in the harbor of Okinawa where her crew was hard-pressed to provide timely repairs to the numerous warships damaged by kamikaze attacks. That month alone, she went to General Quarters 59 times and fought off Japanese attacks right along with other ships anchored there. To help protect the repair ship, VESTAL's ingenious crew placed smoke bombs all around her on floats, and lit them whenever an attack was imminent. Enveloped in thick white smoke, she escaped being hit while other ships did not. 7
Typhoon Troubles and Triumphs: When World War II finally ended, VESTAL and other ships at Okinawa had to leave port three times to prevent being driven aground by a series of fierce typhoons. At one point, the aging repair ship had to fight her way through winds reaching 100 miles per hour and raging seas. Returning to Okinawa on October 10, 1945, two life rafts were spotted by her lookouts. Launching a motor whaleboat in still-stormy seas, VESTAL's crew rescued 32 men; survivors of a landing craft sunk the previous night in the height of a typhoon. Once back in port, the VESTAL's war-weary crew was faced with more repair work; this time to make typhoon-battered warships seaworthy again. In early 1946, VESTAL's crew was tasked with removing ammunition and equipment from weary warships that were destined to be decommissioned, upon their return to the United States. A Bittersweet Homecoming: Finally, in mid-1946, it was VESTAL's turn, and she and her crew were allowed to returned to the United States. Her crew, many of them repair specialists that had been onboard since America had entered the war were understandably happy to be going home, but they were also dismayed to learn that their ship was slated to be decommissioned. That final naval ceremony took place at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on August 14, 1946. The former AR-4 then lay idle alongside a pier there for two and a half years as other decommissioned ships declared surplus were prepared for disposal. Sometime in 1949, removal of equipment from AR-4 commenced. Wayward Bell: In July of 1950, her stripped down hulk was sold for scrapping and towed to Baltimore, Maryland, where she was dismantled. Her ship's bell was removed and placed on display in Baltimore for a while. Then...it disappeared. Six decades later, it was discovered in the basement of a Baltimore church stuck behind a furnace, covered with dust and grime. How it got there, no one knows for certain. Returned to the Navy, it was restored and placed on permanent display at the headquarters of the Naval History and Heritage Command at the navy yard in Washington, DC just weeks before the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. 8
Captain Cassin Young, USN: Cassin Young was born in Washington, DC in the spring of 1894. He was named in honor of an American naval hero of the war of 1812. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1916, and then served in a battleship during World War I. During the 1920's he spent several years in the submarine service. During that time he was skipper of two different submarines. Later he was assigned to various shore duty posts, including one at the Naval Academy. By 1931, he had risen to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and for two years served again in a battleship. Following that tour of duty, he was assigned to the destroyer EVANS (DD-78) as her commanding officer for two years in the mid-1930s. Next, following promotion to the rank of Commander, he was given command of a submarine division and then became the VESTAL's commanding officer. For his leadership and actions associated with saving AR-4 from sinking on December 7, 1941, he received the Medal of Honor. Promoted to the rank of Captain in February of 1942, he was visited onboard VESTAL on April 18, 1942 by Admiral Nimitz, left, who ceremoniously placed the nation's highest decoration for valor around the naval hero's neck. On November 9, 1942, Captain Cassin Young assumed command of the heavy cruiser SAN FRANCISCO (CA-38). Less than a month later, he was killed in action during the fiercely fought Naval Battle of Guadalcanal when enemy shellfire struck the cruiser's bridge. Captain Cassin Young, USN was buried at sea. His Medal of Honor now resides in the Naval Academy Museum. A destroyer, the USS CASSIN YOUNG (DD-793) was named in his memory. His widow christened that warship in an emotional ceremony in late 1943. DD-793 served the nation well for 38 years. Now restored to her World War II configuration, she currently is a museum ship berthed in Boston harbor. 9
Remembering: Near the ARIZONA Memorial, the mooring quays along battleship row have been preserved and are marked with the names of battleships that were there on Sunday, December 7, 1941. Memoralized in this fashion are the battleships NEVADA, WEST VIRGINIA AND TENNESSEE. And, of course, the ARIZONA. In addition, one of the mooring quays honors the name and number of Cassin Young's noncombatant command on that fateful day. The Navy never forgets. Bill Lee December 2017 10