USS Hamilton DD-141

USS Hamilton (DD-141) was a Wickes class destroyer, launched 15 January 1919 at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard and commissioned 7 November of that year. Although ordered by the Navy for the First World War, most of her significant duties took place during the Second.

Early Service History

Based out of San Diego, Hamilton participated in battle practice and maneuvers along the California coast as well as torpedo and smoke screen operations in Hawaii. This routine continued until Hamilton was decommissioned on 20 July 1922.

Hamilton was reactivated on 20 January 1930 and transferred to Norfolk, Virginia. She operated along the east coast throughout 1931, and then returned to San Diego in January 1932. After a year of plane guard duty and battle exercises along the California coast, Hamilton was again stationed at Norfolk in January 1933, then Newport, Rhode Island, her home port until 1939. When war broke in Europe in September of that year, Hamilton joined other aging flush-deck destroyers on the Grand Banks Patrol, sailing as far as Iceland in order to protect U.S. shipping. Hamilton continued in this capacity until converted to a fast minesweeper in June 1941. Reclassified DMS-18 on 17 October 1941, she resumed patrol duty along the East Coast and into the North Atlantic.

World War II

On 7 December 1941, Hamilton's duties took her on coastal convoys from New York through German U-boat-infested waters as far south as the Panama Canal.

In the fall of 1942, Hamilton became part of the Allied invasion of North Africa. Hamilton sailed for North Africa on 24 October, arriving off the Moroccan coast two weeks later to provide antisubmarine protection and fire support for the first waves of invasion.

Hamilton remained along the North African coast on minesweeping and escort duty out of Casablanca until December, when she sailed for the Brooklyn Navy Yard, arriving the day after Yule.

The following year saw Hamilton engaged primarily in coastal convoy duty, guiding and protecting merchant marine vessels as they traveled from Iceland to the Caribbean.

In December 1943, Hamilton was ordered to Kwajalein Atoll, a key target in the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. As the Marines landed on 31 January 1944, Hamilton steamed in the area to screen transports and provide fire support.

Over the next 13 months, Hamilton and her crew followed the fleet through difficult and dangerous campaigns in the Solomons and the Philippines, often operating under heavy fire - yet amazingly emerging from her tour of duty unscathed (she was the only minesweeper of her group to survive the war).

Fate

Hamilton headed home in March 1945. She entered San Francisco Bay on 8 April, 26 years old and having sailed over 100,000 miles in the Pacific campaign alone. Scheduled for overhaul and modernization, she went into dry dock at Richmond, California, but was subsequently reclassified AG-111 (miscellaneous auxiliary) on 6 May 1945 and the work canceled. The old and weary vessel spent the few remaining months of the war participating in experimental minesweeping work along the California coast out of Santa Barbara. Two weeks before the Japanese surrender, Hamilton sailed to the destroyer base at San Diego, where she was decommissioned in October. Her cannibalized hulk was sold to Hugo Neu Metal Recyclers in New York City for scrap a year later.

Asbestos Risks

The fibrous mineral asbestos was routinely used for compartment insulation and for fireproofing aboard each U.S. Navy vessel through two world wars. Each ship's boilers and mechanical sections usually were the sections where a crewman or a civilian worker was likely to come into contact with air contaminated by asbestos; however, practically all compartments of the Hamilton presented a real danger of asbestos risk. When the ship was hit in combat, damaged by Mother Nature, or involved in an accident, it usually uncovered asbestos-containing materials to the open air or subjected them to fire or water; this meant additional danger of high levels of asbestos contact.

The greatest danger of harmful exposure with asbestos occurs whenever items containing the mineral become damaged and friable, since if the asbestos microfibers escape into the surrounding air, the material may then be inhaled by workers close to the asbestos. As a history of asbestos inhalation is known to be a causative factor linked to pleural mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and other life-threatening health problems, all those with a history of exposure to this mineral should immediately notify their health care providers, since many asbestos-related problems are puzzling to detect. To learn more about the diagnostic process, available treatment options and financial assistance to help pay for medical costs, please fill out this form to receive a comprehensive packet in the mail.

In addition to the inherent dangers associated with combat, sailors who served aboard the Hamilton were, as were servicemen on the other vessels of the same class, all too often endangered by asbestos fiber inhalation even though the ship experienced minor combat damage and went through numerous but generally routine renovations and overhauls. Despite the absence of serious battle damage and refit activity, those who lived and worked aboard the Hamilton were still endangered by asbestos in the daily conduct of their service. This was especially the case for repair personnel such as pipefitters and electricians who repaired this ship whenever she spent time dry-docked.

For the sailors who sailed and worked aboard this destroyer at any time in their career, and those assigned to her sister ships, it is very important to become fully aware of the hazards raised by their past exposure to this deadly fiber, especially given what we now know about the result of asbestos inhalation.

Sources:

Destroyers Index