Seeing USS Ernest G. Small with a missing bow reminded me of the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans, which had suffered similar damage but managed to get back to safety. They really build those ships different.
Funnily enough, it was and is not that unusual for warships to lose their bows and not sink. Most ocean-going warships of most navies were and are built on the principle of a buoyant citadel, a protected box-like structure which, so long as it remains sufficiently dry internally, should keep a ship afloat. Bows are generally attachments to the citadel specifically to allow damage and/or replacement of the bow without compromising the integrity of the citadel. Most ships that "lost their bows" and actually sank usually involved a significant portion of the ship behind the bow also being broken off as well. E.G. Smalls here came close to losing too much of her citadel, but she kept enough.
I served a summer 1973 cruise on a sister ship, USS Carpenter (DD-825), along with three other Gearing-class destroyers (McKean, Southerland, and Wiltsie comprising Naval Reserve Surface Destroyer Squadron 37). We left Seattle in mid-June, sailed to Adak, then on to Yokosuka. We did joint anti-submarine warfare training with four Japanese destroyers, and then sailed to Kure, where Japanese port and city officials put on a wonderful welcome for the ships (leis for the officers, Japanese drummers and musicians, and a bevy of lovely Japanese dancers in kimonos or yukatas on the pier). The ships next went to Taiwan for exercises with four Taiwan navy destroyers. Two ships of our little squadron then broke off for a visit to Hong Kong, which was my first visit to this city (had a great time). After about three days there, our squadron formed up again and transited to Guam, Midway, and finally Pearl Harbor. We had groups of Reservists board and depart the ships for their annual training duty when the ships visited ports. Very busy summer -- and immensely rewarding.
They say sailors are known for their frequent use of profanities, but I'd imagine they took it to a whole new level when they saw the bow of the own ship suddenly break off.
The logbooks of almost all Navy ships are in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. Available to anyone to peruse. Once you check in and secure almost all your personal belongings, you are allowed to take the elevator to the second floor (if memory serves me right). Go to the Navy desk and tell them what you'd like to see. They are very helpful.
My dad was on a Gearing Class destroyer, from '52-56. The 'USS O'Hare' (DDR-889), of which we can see, would look like, her sister ship shown @11:45. The one in the center; the DDR-886.
I was aboard 1964 through 1967 and am amazed at the lack of knowledge on the old "Dirty Ernie". Home ported in Yokusuka, Japan at the time with thousands of rounds deposited in Vietnam during that time. Our Radarmen had air control of the A1 Skyraider that shot down a Mig and they were decorated receiveing medals for the event. Shore bombardment, along with SAR, and plane guarding the ship was always up to the tasks. I have great fondness for the ship and crew.
I searched, but it seemed after 1960 everything just *stopped* until 1971. DANFS, other usually reliable sources…even Navsource only had blurbs. As said, I’d be happy to do a follow up covering the 1960s. Just a matter of figuring it out.
@@skyneahistory2306 I don't know how much help it would be but I still have my cruisebook from my time on board and the ship is having a reunion in Colorado Springs in September near the end of the month.
Small was a member of DesRon 3 homeported in Yokosuka, Japan in the mid to late 60's and served with the 7th Fleet (Vietnam duties primarily) during that time. She was a sister ship to the USS Orleck (DD886) in which I served '63-'66.
As soon as i head she was BIW built, i knew a little about why she survived. Bath built ships were always made just a touch better than the competition. So many examples of their ships surviving things they never should have.
@nigelmorroll: I served on a Gearing class, 806, and they were really built tough, as were all the WWII cans. They were built to withstand some serious battle damage and keep afloat. Look up the Frank E Evans, DD 753. Cut in half by an Aussie carrier in '69, forward half sunk, stern section stayed afloat and was towed into Subic Bay, PI. I have actually been through some severe tropical storms/tail end of a typhoon, sometimes lasting 3-4 days, and the beatings they took were unreal. One we went through, we took water over the bridge and cracked the bullet-proof windows on the bridge, also cracked some hull seams. In weather like that, all weather deck doors are battened down, and it's like riding inside a cork! Rolls from 45 deg to 45 deg, back and forth. You just don't think about it because you know the ship will handle it. One time, we were in the SCS, and the hull was holed from the seas, and they put the diver over the side with a DC wooden plug and some rags to stuff around it until we could get into the yards. Ship was commissioned in Jan '45 as a DDR.
I served on the Taylor, [DD468] from ’67-mid’68; then on to the Small from late ’68-early ‘70. [I swapped orders with another BT as I was to go to the Battleship New Jersey. I wanted to stay on a Destroyer, (I'm a Tin Can sailor at heart), and he wanted a Battleship.] Went on a WestPac cruise starting in October 68 leaving Pearl and returning May 69. I actually have the cruise book the ship published with pics, stats etc. Then on to the Carpenter [DD825] until discharged in ’71. I had to keep changing Destroyers due to them being sold off.
I am not sure of this, but friends of mine mentioned this ship as being a reserve ship used for reserve weekends off the San Diego coast in the late 1960's. they called it the "Dirty Ernie"
Concerning mostly Cruisers but had Destroyers also in the mix, the Naval Actions around Guadalcanal, '42 & '43, they ran out of Cruisers, many of them having their Bows Blown Off (that's why Lee only had 4 DD's as escorts the night Washington destroyed Kirishima)
Look up "HMS ZUBIAN" , which was the bow end of "HMS Zulu" and Aft end of "HMS Nubian", which were "cut and shut" together after they were involved in accidents !
I agree with you, not enough attention is paid to covering the Cold War, which I find more interesting because it illustrates how hostile engagements can occur without a war. A point of interesting research for me was you mentioning the First Taiwan Strait crisis at 11:02. I have not thought about that topic in a lot of years.
The _USS Maddox_ a _Sumner_ class destroyer which preceded the _Gearings_ was attacked by North Vietnamese Torpedo Boats in the Tonkin Gulf incident that triggered a larger US involvement in Vietnam. So - yes - these and other WWII American Destroyers were very active in the Vietnam War - but - most were scrapped right afterwards. During the war the Navy's operating expenses were very high so they retained the use of a lot of WWII ships - but once it was over they started spending their money on newer designs. .
The “Discoverer” program was a cover for the first generation “Corona” reconnaissance satellite program. So not the USAF as program manager but rather the rather blacker NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) and CIA. So a good chance it spent the 1960’s chasing satellite film re-entry capsules around the Pacific.
As I said in another comment, the skipper during the mine incident was my father. I teased him more than once by saying, "When you took command the ship was the SMALL; when you gave it back it was the SMALLER.
Awesome little ship! The photos of the bow breaking off are horrifying! MAJOR PROPS to the crew fir fetting her back to port!!! Any idea what was used to sink her? Guessing from the look of it a torpedo.
Not quite. She struck a mine which did serious structural damage forward of Mount 52 (2nd 5" gun mount) with the hull flexing caused by heavy seas finishing what the mine started. A torpedo would probably have done the whole thing all at once, fortunately at that time the Norks didn't have any submarines.
Interestingly she had all her turrets unlike most other FRAM upgrades. I suppose she was a FRAM II upgrade (which was in fact less extensive than FRAM I). In Taiwanese service, judging by the photo, mount 2 was replaced by a 76mm OTO Melara gun
What on earth happened to the broken off bow section? Curious if it was recovered and scrapped or if it was left on the bottom of the ocean and lost to time!
Regarding ths ship's operational history, wouldn't it be possible to request the ship's deck log under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)? BTW, I was in the Navy on a Sumner Class destroyer (DD-779) in the early 1970s. My fire conrol chief had prior service on a radar picket destroyer (I think a converted Fletcher class). It would be interesting to learn more about these modifications to WWII class destroyers in the 1950s and 1960s, although if memory serves, he said service on those ships was incrediibly boring -- sailing solo in circles in the ocean on station for weeks on end!
@redhand: I served on the 806, 64-66. It was commissioned as a radar picket ship in Jan, '45. Picture at the end of the Higbee, 806, Orleck, 886 and the Small. Higbee and Orleck were in Desron 3. I don't know if the Small ever was though. BTW Red, 64-66 was anything but boring. We spent close to two years in the Tonkin escorting carries doing airstrikes against N. Vietnam, gunfire support (NGFS), SHOBOM, starshells for the Marines, SAR missions for downed aircraft returning from the strikes, unrepping almost nightly, sometimes 3-4 a night. 5" shells, groceries, fuel, and whatever. We were homeported out of Yokosuka, 64-66 so no westpac 6 months cruises. Very little port time to boot.
if you ever get into ancient war ships the Claw of Archimedes was an interesting invention....i think they had one on a ship too that was raised up and would smash down on an rnemy ship and hold the ships together while causing damage.....so kinda picture a catapult but instead of pulling a lever to throw things you a pulled a lever to smash the claw down.....and the one in ports on land would come down and lift the end of the ship and drop it causing it to capsize
A device developed during the age of Galley warfare (by the Romans IIRC) was the Korax, basically a long beam with a spike on one end and a "hinge" on the other securing it to your ship. Instead of ramming your bow into an enemy vessel you would bring your ship alongside an enemy (presumably not able to maneuver for some reason) and drop the Korax on their deck, the spike penetrating the enemy deck to hold the enemy ship in place and the beam providing access to the enemy ship for your boarding soldiers. I do not know how successful the device actually was in practice.
There are many many more interesting naval cold war stories from the other side as well, like the struggles Soviet's first nuclear submarines and real red October incident or Chinese spy fishing bout sinking incident, are you interested ? Then let's start a Skynea petition for more cold war stuff, YES ?!
U.S. Navy ships all had poorly engineered bows. Many ships suffered this fate. The Germans couldn't build a stern, the U.S. couldn't build a bow. British ships had the ugliest, I'm a kid let me draw, designs but can't remember an instance when they ever either or.
