Intrepid (CVS 11) - Naval Cruise Book

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I V al I is. - 1 1 W w I' K I ' a in hc nil QQ 1 F ,,-nr iagsi An Experimental Torpedo Ram, Second Intrepid was launched in 1874 Third Intrepid Trained West Coast Sailors in Early 1900's 1 ,Q t faiffrflr' 'X Q 1 .tfaj The second ship named INTREPID was coni- missioned -luly 31, 1871, at Boston, Mass. She was an experimental iron-build steam torpedo rain. She was P112 l'lS1'5L'c4l, 170 feet long, with a beam of 35 feet, displaced 1238 tons and had a draft of 11 feet. From August to November 1871 the INTRISPID cruised along the North Atlantic coast, testing' tor- pedoes and coinpilinpg research material for the Navy. Later, in the same capacity, she operated out of New York Navy Yard and other ports until 1889. ln 1892- she was dec-oniissioned and removed from the Navy list and sold as scrap. The third PSS INTREPID was built at Mare lsland, Calif., and was launched October 8, 190-1. She was 176 feet long, built of steel, and displaced 1800 tons. Her armament was four six.-pounders and two one-pounders. INTREPID No. 3 was one of two ships built for the training of landsmen and apprentices, then the first two enlisted grades. ln 1907, operating from San Francisco, she was used as a receiving ship. Later INTREPID became a barracks for the men of the Pacific Fleet's F-boats. There was also a non-Navy INTREPID which was christened February 9, 1052 at San Francisco Naval Shipyard. This INTREPID is used in San Francisco Bay by Sea Scouts from the San Francisco area, and is named S.S.S. INTREPID. On December 1, 1911 six days before the Japa- nese attacked Pearl Harbor, the keel of the fourth USS INTREPID CCV-115 was laid in at concrete pgraying dock at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia. Seven- teen months later a A11-million dollar aircraft carrier, the length of three football fields, stood ready for her initial plunge. ln August of 1943, the t'M1ghty 1 was commissioned in Norfolk, Virginia, soon ready for combat duty in the Pacific and destined to become the most frequently hit of all aircraft carriers. 1 I ,1 x I 4 -r- ..4 ' sffff 'gg i-:ss 9 7, ...,..r-

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HI TORY OF I TREPID L, . 4, ,V .. ,. . 31 . R. Y Ai 4.51. A First Intrepid Entering Tripoli Harbor THE FIRST INTREPID The first INTREPID was built as a bomb ketch gunboat by France in 1798 for Bonaparte's Egyptian Expedition. She was sold to Tripoli and subsequently captured off the coast of Tripoli by the American schooner, Enterprise, in December of 1803. The word intrepid is synonymous with cour- ageous, fearless, bold and undaunted. The first USS INTREPID certainly lived up to her name, for in the naval war between the United States and the Barbary States she distinguished herself by two bold and heroic actions. When the frigate Philadelphia ran aground while chasing a corsair, and was captured by the Tripolitans, Commodore Preble, in the Constitution, approved a plan whereby INTREPID would be used to burn the Philadelphia and remove her as a threat to our future operations. On the night of Feb. 16, 1804, LT Stephen Decatur, commanding INTREPID, with a band of 84 officers and men, entered the harbor of Tripoli with orders to burn and destroy the Philadelphia. The INTREPID was chosen be- cause of her Turkish rig, which lessened the chance of her identiy being disclosed. Decatur and his men went alongside the Philadelphia, successfully accom- plished the mission, and withdrew safely with only one casualty. Lord Nelson, at the time commanding the British blockading fleet before Toulon, called it, . . . the most bold and daring act of the age. In the fall of 1804 INTREPID was ordered again to enter the harbor of Tripoli, this time to destroy the enemy's shipping, Master Commandant Richard Somers, of the Nautilus, volunteered to command this highly dangerous mission. Midshipman Henry Wadsworth Can uncle of the poet Longfellowj, Joseph Israel, and ten men, all volunteers, comprised the crew. She carried one hundred and fifty fixed shells, and a fuze, set to burn fifteen minutes, led aft to a box filled with combustibles. ' On the night of September 4th, INTREPID, with two boats being towed astern for escape pur- poses, was accompanied as far as the rocks off the western entrance by the Argus, Vixen, and Nautilus. As the crews of these vessels looked on INTREPID stood slowly into the harbor until she was only about a musket shot from the mole. A long, heavy silence ensued. I Then. INTREPID's batteries opened up and began firing 1n all directions. This was followed by a v1v1d flash and a tremendous explosion, heard and felt by the ships outside, and, though fatal to Somers and his men, the explosion marked the virtual end of the Wnar. This was, of course, the last to be known of the First Intrepid.

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-f , F ,., Q , A f A ' 1.7 ' .. A . 'J , ' ,. ,.,,4:'. 'i ' q..- ' -it '.x-'i...-fu.. I ' - 'T ' A MJ If I X 'H 14' 3 455 I-.4-9: ... I l World War II saw fourth Intrepid in plenty of action, here she steams toward Western Pacific in 1943 INTREPID joined the Central Pacific For- ces in December 1943, for the lVIarshall Islands and the attack on Kwajelein Atoll. I-Ier courage- ous fliers, Air Group Six, bombed and strafed that atoll in support of the lVIarine assault forces. During her second combat operation against the island of Truk in the central Carolinas, this formidable fighting lady sustained her first trauma of the war when hit by an enemy torpedo. It tore a huge gash in her hull, rendering it neces- sary for her to steer out of the operation by scrws only. The hit jammed the rudder hard to port. Days later a sail of hatch covers and can- vas was rigged on the forcastle to enable her to steer an eratic course to Pearl Harbor for badly needed repairs. The INTREPID further en- hanced her reputation by being the only aircraft carrier in history underway utilizing a sail. In October 1944, with Air Group Eighteen embarked, during the battle of Leyte Gulf, IN- TREPID suffered her first air attack hit. One of the first Kamikaze thrusts of the war found its target on a port gun tub of INTREPID. Again in November, while participating in air strikes against Luzon, two more Jap suicide planes dove into her flight deck, once again she limped into Pearl Harbor and later to San Francisco for ma- jor repairs. With Air Group Ten now on board, IN- TREPID embarked for Okinawa in February of 1945. Beginning in April, her planes flew an ex- tended series of support missions at Okinawa and other islands in the area. At this time she suffered her fourth Kamikaze hit opening a huge hole in the flight deck with a bomb exploding in the hangar bay. Her experienced fire fighting crews extinguished raging flames in a record 51 minutes. However the attack took its toll in heavy damage sending the MIGHTY I once again to San Francisco for repairs. There the workers