Hornet (CVS 12) - Naval Cruise Book

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I There is little detailed information available on the exploits of the first five HORNET's, but what recognition we have. of their missions and accomplishments for the United States Navy definitely acknowledges them as some of the most distinguished fighting ships in American Naval History. . The FIRST HORNET was a 10 gun sloop equipped at Baltimore, Maryland, by the Continental Marine Committee in the fall of 1775. Under the command of Captain John Nicholson in January of '77 HORNET was ordered to escort a convoy of merchantmen ufairly out to seaf' This was no easy task, because the British had vessels blockading their route. But HORNET managed to evade them and bring the merchants safely to sea. ' On her return from this cruise, HORNET was attached to Commodore Saltonstalls squadron in the Delaware River. This proved to be a fatal assignment for HORNET, because with the fall of the forts guarding the approaches to Philadelphia of November 17, 1777, the American vessels under Saltonstall were left without protection. Therefore Captain Nicholson was given orders to destroy HORNET to prevent her from falling into enemy hands. The SECOND HORNET, purchased at Malta in 1805, was a 10-gun sloop. She was commanded by Lieutenant Samual Evans and was assigned to Commodore Rodgers' Squadron in the Mediterranean during the Tripolitan War. In March of that year HORNET was ordered to Bomba, on the coast of Tripoli to aid General Eaton in the proposed attack on Derne. HORNET was instru- mental, due to her fire power, in bringing about a quick truce to the Tripolitan War. In 1806 she was sold out of service at Charleston, South Carolina. The THIRD HORNET, a 440 ton brig-rigged sloop of war, was launched at Baltimore, Maryland on July 28, 1805. She was a beautiful little vessel, modeled after the designs of French naval ships, and she carried an armament of eighteen 31-pounder caronades and two long six pounders on a flush spar deck, with neither poop. nor top gallant forecastle. On June 21, 1812, three days after the declaration of war HORNET put to sea. During this sea period HORNET overtook and captured two British vessels. This, HORNET's last cruise, was under the command Of Master Commandant Otho Norris in February 5, 1829, when she foundered in a heavy gale off Tampico, Florida, and was lost with all hands aboard. The FOURTH HORNET was a five gun schooner bought at Georgetown in 1813. She mounted one long 18-pounder and four 18-pound carronades. Between 1813 and 1820, she was commanded successively by Lieutenant Lewis B. Page, Lieutenant Jesse Wilkinson, Lieutenant James Ramage, and finally by Lieutenant John P. Zantzinger prior t0 being Sold ont of Service in 1820, The ,FIF T H HORNET was an iron side-wheel S 8 A I 'I A I steamer of the third rate. . On October 28, 1864-, during the Civil Ward, it was captured off New Inlet, North Carolina, by the USS 1 CALYPSO and EOLUS. She was taken into service, after capture, I under her original name of LADY STERLING, but on June 17, I i ' 'tt rratva W I Z 1865, the Navy Department ordered her renamed HORNET. , Under the command of Acting Master Joseph Avant, HORNET was ordered to accompany the RHODE ISLAND to Havana, Cuba in October 1865 for the purpose of receiving the surrender of the Confederate, Sam Stonewall. On June 26, 1869, she was sold out of service for SB33,000.00. The SIXTH HORNET, purchased on April 6, 1898 from Henry M. Flagler for 8117,500.00, was originally the steel steam yacht ALICIA, built by Harlin and Hollingsworth at Wilm- ington, Delaware in 1890. 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With the end of the War with Spain, HORNET was ordered out of commission at the Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia on October 18, 1898. ln December of the sam h ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' e year s e was given to the North Carolina Naval Militia for drill and instructional purposes Th SEVENTH C N C . .l'lORNET's keel was laid on September 25, 1939 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock ompany, ewport News, Virginia. Authorized by the Naval Expansion Act of May 17 1939 she was laun h d D b 14 1940 . l I . . i , , c e on ecem er , and placed. in commission at the Naval Operating Base in Norfolk, Virginia on October 20, 1941, under the command of Captain Mark Andrew Mrtscher. SEVENTH HORNET--The first carrier to bear the name HORNET. Just prior of the sinking during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on October 26, 1942. During the bombing raid against Tokyo on April 18, 1942, Brigadier General Jimmy Doolittle and his flyers were taking off from a uShangri Lan somewhere in the Pacific. Unknown to the rest of the world, this 'cShangri Lan was the flight deck of HORNET, which had carried the twin-engine bombers to within 800 miles of the Japanese coast. fThe USS SHANGRI LA QCV- 38J was later named to commemorate this event and the HORNETJ. - ln the battle of the Santa Cruz lsland on October 26, 1942, HORNET took her last stand against the enemy and parished in a maze of blazing gunfire. ln the final analysis, however, the Japanese themselves couldn't sink her. Using bucket brigades after the firefighting apparatus was destroyed, HORNET was taken in tow and led from the battle area. But before she could be led safely away, subsequent attacks damaged her still more. During the height of one of the attacks, a 1,000 pound bomb pierced the HORNET,s deck and entered into a room beside the ordnance compartment. An ordnance chief entered the compartment, in the dark, and disarmed the bomb. Eventually, after 10 hours of attack, the order was given to torpedo HORNET to preclude any possibility of her falling into enemy hands. After other vessels rescued all but 129 of her compliment of 2900 men, two destroyers torpedoed and sank her. r EIGHTH HORNET-The present carrier, a 43,000 ton ship, commissioned on November 29, 1943, as she appeared in the later months of World War ll. When news came that the seventh HORNET had been sunk, the Navy decided to generate the name to CVA-12 that was originally to be called KEARSARGE. On August 30, 1943, ten months after the CV-8 had been lost, the EIGHTH HORNET was launched. In the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia on November 29, 1943, the EIGHTH and present HORNET was com- missioned. Arriving at Pearl Harbor on March 4, 1944, she became part of Task Force Fifty Eight. Earning the Presidential Unit Cita- tion, she also receved seven battle stars on the Asiatic-Pacific Service Medal for action from March 1944 to January 1945. A HORNET participated in raids on Palau, Yap, Truk, the capture and occupation of Saipan, and the battle of Surigao Strait, Northern Luzon, and Formosa attacks. She served as a troop transport from 1945 to June 1946 during operation 4'Magic Carpet. She was decommissioned, then, after a glorious record of operations during the latter part of World War ll. ln May, 1951 she was brought from San Francisco, California to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where conversion began on July 15, 1951. She went on a around the worldi' cruise in late 1954 and early 1955. ln late 1955 the HORNET underwent modernization in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington. It' was here she received the angled flight deck and hurricane bow. To prove the greatness of the name HORNET through the history of the United States Navy, the ship once again won the coveted Battle Efliciency ME , in 1959, the second in two years and for the first time as a support carrier. HORNET has also proved her excellence in Engineering by winning the Engineering HE for the fiscal year 1959-60 for another second consecutive year sequence. She has won four successive Battle Efficiency HE's,', beginning in 1958 to bear the grandeur of the name she bears. Beginning October 9, 1963, HORNET again deployed to the Western Pacific, returning in April 1964 after many visits to the cities of the Orient, and a short visit to beautiful Hawaii. 7