1942: During the landings at Guadalcanal the US waited for the Japanese to mount a counter attack by air. One of the ships waiting was a destroyer, the USS Jarvis DD-393. The Jarvis was screening while the transports unloaded men and equipment. The Japanese made two air attacks on the 7th only damaging one ship but loosing 14 of their aircraft. About noon on the 8th. the Japanese planes appeared in the skies again, this time they would be more successful.

Nine of the enemy planes breached the screen and attacked the US ships. They bombed the transport George F. Elliot and hit the Jarvis with a torpedo. She had a fifty foot gash torn in her side but stayed afloat. The crew miraculously kept her from sinking and she was towed to shallow water. Those wounded were taken off and make shift repairs were made to the ship. She was ordered to Efate for permanent repairs but the Captain headed for Australia for the needed repairs.

At midnight the Jarvis limped out of harbor and headed across the Coral Sea. At 01:30 the Jarvis passed just north of a Japanese cruiser squadron headed for Savo Island. The Japanese fired torpedoes and a few rounds from their guns with no effect. The Jarvis, without radio apparently could not warn the US forces patrolling in the area of the presence of the Japanese ships.

That fact had tragic consequences for not long after passing, the Japanese mauled the US ships in the Battle of Savo Island. The worst surface defeat the US would suffer. In a total Japanese victory the cruisers Quincy CA-39 and Vincennes CA-44 were sunk outright. The HMAS Canberra was torpedoed and later scuttled to prevent capture and the Astoria CA-34 sank later in the day while under tow. The cruiser Chicago CA-29 was damaged and out of action until Jan. 1943. The Japanese lost no ships and received only slight damage to one destroyer. One destroyer IJN Kako was sunk leaving the area by a US submarine. Four heavy cruisers, one destroyer and 1,270 men were lost in a battle that lasted only 30 minuets.

The crew on the Jarvis must have seen the battle from a distance, what they saw we will never know, because she was sighted by the Japanese. They believed the Jarvis had been in the battle and was going to escape. Thirty-one planes were dispatched from Rabaul and they found the Jarvis. She was trailing fuel, down in the bow only had a few operational guns. Unable to defend herself the Jarvis was an easy target for the Japanese. She was bombed and torpedoed until she split in two and sank at 13:00 on Aug. 9, 1942. She took all hands with her.

 

© 2005 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com

USS Jarvis DD-393