Essex (CVA 9) - Naval Cruise Book

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y . 2. A wooded screw steamer was the next ESSEX. She had a tonnage of 615 and a length of 185 feet. Hers was a relatively quiet life, although there were voyages to Liberia and the Caroline Islands. In the Carolines she investigated the re- ported massacre of Spaniards and gave protection to American missionariesy In 1930 she was sold. 1 The CVA-9, built in Newport News. Virginia, was the first of a class of huge carriers that were to prove surprisingly adaptable to the needs of modern war. Not a single .member of the ESSEX class has even been sunk. Called to the Pacific to participate in the mounting offensive against the Japanese, her air group struck at Marcus Island in the morning darkness of 31 August 1943 and helped inflict complete destruction on the enemy's air facilities and installations. Then followed successful attacks on Wake Island and on the concentration of Japanese ships in Rabaul Harbor. In the Gilberts the ESSEX engaged in her first amphibious support operation, paving the way for Marine landings. But the Japanese were well fortified in their dugouts, and repeated aerial attacks, while destroying surface installations, did little to wipe out the thousands of fanatical defenders who made the island of Tarawa the scene of one of history's bloodiest battles. There followed strikes against Truk and Saipan. In 1944, she hit the Palaus, Nansei Shoto, Formosa, Philippines, and supported the invasion of the Marianas. One day in November of that year an enemy suicide plane plunged down onto the forward port flight deck, bursting into a tremendous gasoline explosion which killed 15 men and destroyed a gun mount. This was her only material casualty of the war. Next year she sent air attacks against China, Hong Kong, the Japanese mainland, and the islands of Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Back in Bremerton, Washington, after the war, the ESSEX was decommissioned. Following two years of rest at Bremerton remodeling began there in '49, then recommissioning in '51 in time to enter the l'Cold War conflict in Korean waters. On her first cruise of the war she made a total of 6,600 sorties against North Korean and Red Chinese forces, destroying not only numerous bridges, buildings, and rail cars but 1,800 Communist troops. This record merely confirmed her title earned years before as the Fightin'est Ship in the Fleet . It was during this period that, for the first time on any carrier, the deadly FZH Banshee twin-jet lighter was launched on combat strikes. In March of '52 she returned to San Diego for three months prior' to the second battle cruise of the war. Back in action, the ESSEX exceeded her previous score of sorties by hurling off her deck a total of 7,606 which spread devastation all the way from the front lines to the Yalu River in Korea. Then, a cease fire was negotiated. The third and fourth Far East cruises since recommissioning took place in '53-'54 and '54-'55. In the last cruise she par- ticipated in the Tachen Islands evacuation. Then, once more to Bremerton for a seven month remodeling that ended in March 1956, after which the ESSEX made visits to Guam and the Phillippines. When her home port became Mayport, Florida, she sailed in the summer of '57 around stormy cape Horn to the Atlantic, making several stops along the way. In the fall of that year came a NATO exercise in the North Atlantic, with visits to the British Isles. February of 1958 saw her off on her first Mediterranean cruise under Captain Thomas A. Christopher, which was to last eight months. In the middle of July the president of Lebanon made an appeal for American military intervention in support of the unstable government, and with characteristic speed the ESSEX pulled up anchor at Athens and steamed down to Beirut to lend aerial support for the Marine Landings. It is to this memorable cruise, with all its associated ports of call and ad- ventures, along with the labor and despair and humor of the shipis three thousand souls, that the present cruise book is dedicated. 4 7

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The ESSEX in History , .-, , fi XL,afN f571'f'fIs- Y tn' ' ' ' 1, . ' 4 aff -' ' ' Wi , ' E Q. Hg ' .' gli 5' .- ff' ' ' 27: ,s 15 f ,M -5 ' I ' , 9:5- I pry.: 1-., , 4 ' . Q-337,41 U . f .9 ' I x , - ' hill, ' , , U jg, ik 'fr A , , 2-ggi? In f I t ' . wil, 1 DQR, 'J ' - f E 'in k .5 1 ' -,---'M ' .. - - . ill fl i . . , -M MFA . .M-M.,-.. - N l-H, .iff V , -K . . . , ' - .Z-I ' .sw - mn n1sv.4iELE.E!7'.Wff 1.4:.um.n.'..ffi2l4-!-effifdi ,'jjjgM,,,,,,,,. ,L ' . . ,QQ X - . f-fsalpuffzf' 'vvv .- .-'N...,,,,:-5.3-.,-. Zi-fir-L . -- . - ' f'w,4., f- ' 4' 'ts-'aft 'is- 'T' 1-1 .rwf...... 1 A '9-. . ., . , ' L . ,,1?':'4 , f. Q h h . - -N.. v 4, v ,I - M - 'B MPN' A 0 , . i , ' J ' Mfr: qyy. Today's USS ESSEX QCVA-9j is a modernized version of the 27,000 ton aircraft carrier rushed to completion in 1942, now six thousand tons heavier with an angle deck, re-designed island structure, and hurricane bow. As such, she is a leviathan among ships, all 889 feet of her. But just as impressive is the ESSEX line-four ships in all-which began with the construction of the U.S. Frigate ESSEX, boasting 32 guns, at Salem, Massa- chusetts in 1799. This predecessor, only a seventh as long as and one-fifty-sixth as heavy as the CVA-9, was financed through popular subscription among the generous folk of Salem, a folk who little dreamed how far the name of their county would be carried in American naval history. Commanded by Captain Edward PREBLE, the frigate sailed in early 1800 to Batavia, Dutch East Indies, along with the CONGRESS, on a mission whose purpose was toescort back a convoy of American merchant ships otherwise unprotected in the existing naval war with France. Six days out of New York the CONGRESS was demasted in a storm. But the ESSEX, undaunted, continued alone, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and brought back the convoy safely. In 1801 she cruised to the Mediterranean, there engaging in more convoy duty in addition to blockading Tripolitan ships. Four years later saw her back in the Mediterranean participating in the siege and capture of the town of Derne. Then, just before the War of 1812, the illustrious Captain David PORTER took command of the vessel. In the fated year he took her south- ward, sporting the flag inscribed Free Trade and Sailors' Rights , and proceeded to capture several British merchantmen and a troop transport. In August she was attacked by the armed British ALERT, a vessel which did not live up to its name in this engagement for it surrendered only eight minutes of battle. Later in 1812 she captured the packet NOCTON with a prize of 350,000 in specie aboard. Down to Valparaiso PORTER took her next year, with plans for destroying the English whaling industry in the Pacific, and learned upon arrival the unwelcome news that the viceroy of Peru had sent out cruisers against American ships. Acting swiftly against his new enemy, PORTER seized the NEREYDA, a 19 gun Peruvian privateer, along with two captured American whalers held in company. He proceeded after that to raise havoc among British' whaling ships. Having heard that the English Captain James HILLYER had been sent with vessels against him, he took the ESSEX to the Marquesas for refitting, sub- dued hostile natives, on the island of Typee fthe beautiful is- land later to be made famous in a book by Herman Melvillej, and took possession of Typee in the name of the United States. It was at Valparaiso again that Captain HILLYER, commanding the frigate PHOEBE and her consort CHERUB, at last caught up with PORTER. The British ships had picked crews specially sent to the Pacific to knock out the ESSEX and her expensive raiding. The ESSEX and ESSEX JR. fthe ex- Atlantic which had been captured and re-named, attempted to escape, but a squall disabled the former, she sought refuge in the neutrality of the harbor, but the warships under HILL- YER, with over twice the armament and almost twice the men, advanced to the kill, but met with a savage resistance that lasted 2-1 X2 hours of incessant firing. At last the ESSEX surrendered, having lost 155 men killed, wounded, or missing. ' . -ffl f , , ,f , .' ...ww ,. l- N, A ,,, f, ' S' . fi , ' 5 . 'S ' Nl- ------- - ' , I . K lgx dp H i nf., ..., , V L? M., , - . I .. , W. .-WW -Sifiiflffffffi ?'- X 'f J' T, Q 'i f ' ff. 'alf1i:4il i V , f, ,f ' 1 f ,.,, , f rg 5 ' W ,, , , p .,.,z7,,-...,,.,,. ..... E .,., I ,Aa fff. ffffr. ...ugh 5 ,,,7 X 4 ,,y,, .. . :Mix , of '1 rw F Zn fi lrztff--zwfrfg, mr. , g itll? l had the 'lim-cxirnp lwrc. sho 'wt-ulil lic- north ri million to href' cnc., ' ata... WM... .x M, .rc ,p,...c. ,L,,,.... .Mm W, - My ,,,.,,V,,a, , 'fy The second USS ESSEX began as a ferry boat purchased in 1861, six months after the Civil War broke out. It was con- verted into an ironclad center-wheel steamer of 614 tons which, under Captain William D. PORTER fson of the famous David Porterj, engaged confederate gunboats on the Mississippi, helped in the capture of Fort Henry, and repelled the Con- federate attack on Baton Rouge. Twice she attacked the C. S. RAM ARKANSAS, causing it to be driven ashore and de- stroyed. In 1864 the ESSEX took part in the Red River ex- pedition. The end to her military life came not from the enemy, but from a public auctioneer who sold her in 1865 at Mound City, Illinois. 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DEPARTMENT HEADS CDR P. N. MACDONALD, Engineering