USS Rhind DD-404

USS Rhind (DD-404) was a Benham-class destroyer, built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and on launched 28 July 1938. The Rhind was commissioned on 10 November 1939.

The Early Years

Rhind spent the first six months of her active duty, following shakedown in 1940, engaged in exercises in the Caribbean and patrols off the coast of Vichy-held Martinique. In 1941, Rhind joined the Neutrality Patrol, monitoring U-Boat activity in the North Atlantic and providing defensive escorts for supply convoys.

Wartime Service

On 7 December 1941, Rhind had just completed a mission escorting the carrier USS Ranger from West Africa to Trinidad. With official U.S. entry into the war, Rhind was ordered north to patrol the waters off Bermuda. In February 1942, she began a series of missions that would take her from Iceland to the Panama Canal, escorting supply ships and hunting German submarines.

On 24 October 1942, Rhind departed for the coast of North Africa. Providing defensive escort for the battleship USS Massachusetts, she arrived off the Moroccan coast on the night of 7 November. After about three weeks of active combat duty, including a running battle with naval vessels of Vichy (Axis-aligned) France, she resumed escort duties, protecting convoys to North Africa for the next several months.

The 10th of July 1943 marked the beginning of the invasion of Sicily. Rhind arrived off the coast four days later, joining the antiaircraft defense and fire-support group. Operations along the coast of the Mezzogiorno region of Italy and the Mediterranean continued through mid-November.

In November 1943, she sailed for home and convoy duties in the North Atlantic and Caribbean, along with antisubmarine warfare patrols.

The Pacific

By the beginning of 1945, Germany was well on its way to defeat. By late March, Hitler's fall was inevitable; Rhind went into the yard to make preparations for the Pacific, where Tojo's Imperial forces were digging in their heels.

Rhind reported to Pearl Harbor on 30 May. After several days of battle exercises, she accompanied a carrier force for strikes against Wake Island. Ultimately, Rhind escorted cargo and troop and ships to Okinawa and other islands in the region until the cessation of hostilities and the final surrender of Japanese troops at the beginning of September 1945.

Post-War Duties and Fate

Rhind remained in the Pacific, participating in mopping-up operations until mid-December, when she got underway for the United States. Arriving at San Diego, California, on 30 December, she was stripped, towed to Pearl Harbor, and prepared for experimental testing. On 15 May 1946, she given orders to join Operation Crossroads, the atomic test series scheduled to be detonated at Bikini Atoll in July.

Following the tests in July 1946, Rhind was toxic with nuclear radiation. She was decommissioned 26 August 1946 and moved to Kwajalein, where she was eventually scuttled on 22 March 1948.

Asbestos Risks

The fibrous mineral asbestos was widely installed for insulating pipes and for fireproofing aboard every American naval vessel through the 1960s. Essentially all sections of a ship such as the Rhind posed at least some asbestos exposure, though each ship's boiler room and mechanical sections were usually the workspaces where a Navy file or dockworker was particularly likely to come into contact with airborne asbestos. More danger of undergoing harmful levels of asbestos inhalation occurred if the ship took damage, in conflict or through misfortune, as that often uncovered asbestos-laden fixtures to the air or subjected them to fire or water.

When dealing with asbestos, the most serious hazard to human health occurs where strands are exposed, because if the asbestos fibers are released into the air, the particles may then be inhaled by those in the area. Research has proven that life-threatening medical ailments such as asbestos, lung cancer and mesothelioma are linked to extensive asbestos exposure.

Workers and sailors with a history of exposure to asbestos fibers should definitely inform their health care providers, as most asbestos-induced problems are hard to diagnose because the symptoms can be mistaken for those of other illnesses. 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.

It is an unfortunate fact that along with the normal hazards of combat, crewmen who lived and worked aboard the Rhind were, like sailors on other destroyers of the same class, frequently endangered by asbestos exposure. This was the case in spite of the fact the ship saw only moderate battle damage and underwent mostly routine renovations and overhauls. The absence of important battle damage and retrofit activity notwithstanding, servicemen who sailed on board the Rhind were nevertheless endangered by asbestos in the daily conduct of their loyal service. In addition, asbestos exposure was a daily occurrence for maintenance workers such as machinists and electricians who serviced this ship whenever she was dry-docked.

For the troops who lived and worked aboard this vessel at any point in their career, and those assigned to other Navy ships, it is critical to learn more about the dangers posed by former exposure to this deadly fiber, especially in light of what we now know about the consequences of prolonged contact with asbestos.

Sources:

Destroyers Index