USS Ralph Talbot DD-390

USS Ralph Talbot (DD-390) was a Bagley-class destroyer, serving in the Pacific Theater during World War II throughout the duration of the conflict. The Talbot was built at the Boston Navy Yard and launched 31 October 1936. She was commissioned almost exactly one year later under the captaincy of Lt. Cmdr. H. R. Thurber.

Pre-War Years

Bagley-class destroyers were among the several classes that made up the third generation of "modern" destroyers built during the 1930s as the Navy updated its fleet. Talbot was initially assigned to the eastern Pacific Battle Force, operating between the west coast of North America and Hawaii during the pre-war years. In early 1941, she underwent a major overhaul at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. In April, she rejoined the fleet at San Diego, then proceeded to Pearl Harbor, where she remained for the remainder of that year.

The US Enters the War

Moored at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December, the crew of the Talbot's crew manned her guns and began preparations for getting underway within the first minutes of the attack. She was underway within an hour. Following the attack, she searched for enemy submarines. A week later, she joined Task Force 14 for the first of a series of carrier force escort assignments.

To the South Pacific

In January 1942, Talbot joined Task Force 8 as U.S. forces began their island-to-island campaign to defeat the Empire of Japan. The first six months of the war went badly for the Allies; the turning point came at the Battle of Midway. By that time, Talbot had returned to Pearl and had spent three months escorting convoys between Hawaii and the west coast. In early June, she escorted to the northwest of Hawaii oilers and supply ships refueling and replenishing vessels that had been involved in the Battle of Midway, then escorted the fleet back to Pearl Harbor. On the 14th she got underway for Australia and New Zealand, staging ports for the invasion of the Solomons -- and beginning of the end of Japan's imperial ambitions in the Pacific.

Just after midnight on 8 August 1942 during the Battle of Savo Island, Talbot was shelled by a friendly destroyer, then by an enemy cruiser that had appeared off her port quarter. Both ships opened fire, and search light switches were flicked on. Ralph Talbot's cables had been severed in the earlier shelling, and she took a hit in the chart house that destroyed radar equipment, cut fire control circuits, and ignited fires. Three more shells came in close succession, hitting the wardroom, the starboard quarter, and the underside of gun No. 4. Among the 12 dead were the ship's doctor and the chief pharmacist's mate.

By 3:30 a.m., fires and flooding were under control and repair work was begun. By noon the following day, temporary repairs enabled the heavily damaged Talbot to make the voyage back to San Francisco for full restoration.

Talbot arrived at Mare Island a month later; full repairs took almost eight weeks. After a month of refresher training, Talbot got underway for Australia on 16 December, from where she would return to the island campaign. Over the next year, she operated primarily in the region of the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. She returned to the United States for a full overhaul in January 1944.

"Once More Into the Breach"

In mid-May of 1944, Talbot departed San Francisco for Pearl Harbor and a month later proceeded to Eniwetok and Saipan as convoy escort. In October 1944, she was part of a task force that made the first strikes against Japanese shipping and positions on Okinawa, Luzon, and Formosa (Taiwan) in preparations for the Philippines campaign.

Ralph Talbot was detached from the Fast Carrier Force on 16 November and spent the next few months supporting operations in the Philippines.

On 20 April 1945, she got underway for Okinawa. Arriving on the 26th, she immediately commenced anti-aircraft patrols. Soon after 10 p.m. on the 27th, while patrolling off the anchorage, she was attacked by two kamikaze suicide pilots, one of which struck her starboard side. Damage control parties brought flooding under control by 10:13 p.m. The destroyer then turned back to the U.S. Naval base on Kerama Retto for repairs.

In May 1945, Talbot returned to Saipan to resume convoy duty between the Marianas and the Ryukyu Islands, a task that would occupy her for the remainder of the war. After the cessation of hostilities, Talbot operated off southern Japan and Okinawa, finally getting underway for the United States on 29 October.

Fate

The USS Ralph Talbot was used as a target in Operation Crossroads, a series of atomic tests conducted at Bikini in July and August 1946. Contaminated with fallout during the tests, the destroyer was towed to Kwajalein - one of the islands she had helped to liberate a few years earlier - and was scuttled in deep water off the atoll in March 1948.

Asbestos Risks

In the first seven decades of the 20th century, every American naval ship commonly installed the mineral asbestos for pipe insulation and for fireproofing. While essentially every part of a ship like the Ralph Talbot posed a real danger of asbestos contamination, the boiler room and mechanical spaces generally where seamen or dockworkers were apt to be in danger of inhaling asbestos dust. If a vessel took damage, whether due to enemy fire, by catastrophic storms, or through misfortune, it usually uncovered asbestos-laden compartments to the open air or subjected them to fire or water, which brought about increased danger of experiencing high levels of asbestos inhalation.

The worst danger of exposure relating to asbestos occurs whenever strands are easily broken (or "friable"); if minute asbestos strands can enter the air, the particles may then be inhaled by workers in the area. Significant asbestos risk is known to be strongly associated with several types of mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer and many other serious health disorders. Seamen who worked around asbestos should promptly notify their medical professionals, since many asbestos-induced disorders can be hard to accurately diagnose. 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.

Servicemen who sailed on board ships like the Ralph Talbot were all too often, on top of the normal hazards of combat, at risk for asbestos exposure. This was particularly the case with the Talbot, as she heavy combat damage and underwent extensive reworkings and overhauls. In addition to the large-scale combat damage and redesign work, sailors who worked on this ship were also subject to inhalation of asbestos fibers in the daily conduct of their duty. Asbestos exposure was a also daily occurrence for maintenance workers such as pipefitters and mechanics who repaired the vessel whenever she was at a shipyard.

In light of what we now know about the outcome of asbestos exposure, the sailors who sailed or worked on board this naval vessel at any time in their career, and those assigned to her sisters in the fleet, need to be made aware of the dangers posed by their past exposure to asbestos, particularly in light of the ship's service record.

Sources:

Destroyers Index