USS Preble DD-345

USS Preble (DD-345) was a Clemson-class destroyer of a flush-deck, four-stack design that was largely obsolete by the late 1930s. Nonetheless, the Preble, like other Clemson and Wickes-type destroyers, saw the most action in the Second World War.

Preble was built by the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine, and launched 8 March 1920. She was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard 19 March 1920.

Between the Wars

Preble's first mission in the summer of 1920 was a humanitarian one as she made three voyages between Galveston, Texas, and Sonora, Mexico, to deliver serum for the bubonic plague, which had broken out during a rebellion in that part of Mexico. In August, she re-joined the Atlantic Fleet, spending the next year in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

The next seven years were spent in Asian waters. During that period, Preble reprised her humanitarian role when a major earthquake struck Japan. At the same time, major civil unrest in China threatened American citizens and property in that country; Preble was among those USN vessels that helped to evacuate U.S. citizens from the most dangerous areas.

Preble returned to San Diego, California, in August 1929. For the next several years she was stationed out of San Diego, cruising along the Pacific Coast of the United States and participating in battle exercises in and around Hawaii, with periodic operations in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

In 1937 Preble was converted to a light minelayer, and reclassified DM-20. She remained based out of Pearl Harbor until the outbreak of World War II, engaging in scheduled mining exercises and fleet maneuvers.

Wartime History

On 7 December 1941, Preble was undergoing an overhaul and unable to get underway. Many of her crew handled ammunition, fought fires, and cared for the wounded aboard the nearby battleship USS Pennsylvania, however.

Preble's yard overhaul was completed by the end of January 1942, and she joined the patrol operating just outside the entrance of Pearl Harbor. From 1 April until the end of the war, Preble laid minefields from Alaska to New Guinea in addition to periodic screening and escort duties. She finally returned to San Francisco in early March 1945 for two months of long-overdue repairs and refits.

Upon her return to Pearl Harbor in May, Preble was redesignated a miscellaneous auxiliary vessel and assigned to carrier escort duty for the duration.

Her Fate

Preble returned to Norfolk Virginia on 20 November 1945. She was decommissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard a few weeks later; she was finally was sold to Luria Brothers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for scrap in October 1946.

Asbestos Risks

Through WWII, each Navy ship routinely installed the fibrous mineral asbestos for insulating compartments and for fireproofing. The engine room and mechanical sections were the workspaces where crewmen or dockworkers were most likely to be in danger of inhaling air contaminated by asbestos; however, nearly all compartments of a ship like the Preble posed a measurable level of asbestos exposure. If the warship was hit in combat, by catastrophic storms, or through misfortune, it usually uncovered asbestos-containing compartments to the open air or subjected them to flames or flooding, which brought about even greater risk of having harmful levels of asbestos inhalation.

With asbestos, the greatest hazard to human health occurs in circumstances where fibers deteriorate and become exposed, because when very small asbestos filaments are released into the surrounding air, the particles may then be inhaled by those in the area. Numerous studies have proven that life-threatening diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma are linked to a high level of asbestos ingestion.

As most asbestos-caused disorders are hard to diagnose because the symptoms can be mistaken for those of other illnesses, those who worked around this substance should make a point to notify their health care providers about this history. 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.

As is the case with people on ships of the same era, those who lived and worked aboard the Preble were all too often, on top of the inherent hazards of war, imperiled by asbestos fiber exposure. This was the case in spite of the fact the Preble absorbed minimal combat damage and required numerous but mostly routine refits and repairs. The absence of significant damage and repair activity notwithstanding, our troops who sailed aboard the Preble were nevertheless exposed to asbestos fibers in the daily execution of their service, as were port-based workers such as pipefitters and mechanics who maintained this destroyer when she was dry-docked.

For the sailors who served and worked aboard this ship at any point in their career, and those assigned to other vessels like her, it is critical to learn more about the dangers posed by their former exposure to this deadly mineral, especially given our increased understanding of the result of prolonged contact with asbestos.

Sources:

Destroyers Index