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USS Dobbin (AD-3)
Encyclopedia
USS Dobbin (AD-3) is the name of a United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
destroyer tender
Destroyer tender
A destroyer tender is a ship designed to provide maintenance support to a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships. The use of this class has faded from its peak in the first half of the 20th century as the roles of small combatants have evolved .Due to the increased size and automation of...
of World War II, named after James Cochrane Dobbin
James C. Dobbin
James Cochran Dobbin was a nineteenth century politician and lawyer who served as United States Secretary of the Navy from 1853 to 1857....
, the Secretary of the Navy from 1853 to 1857.
The USS Dobbin was launched on 5 May 1921 by the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She was commissioned on 23 July 1924, and served for 22 years before being decommissioned on 27 September 1946, and transferred to the United States Maritime Commission
United States Maritime Commission
The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and replaced the U.S. Shipping Board which had existed since World War I...
for disposal.
Missing captain
In July 1941 Commander Thomas C. Latimore, the captain of Dobbin, disappeared while hiking the local [[ʻAiea, Hawaii|Aiea Hills]]. His body was never found and was the subject of much local news coverage and rumor before being overshadowed by the Pearl Harbor attack.Attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
on 7 December 1941. At the time of the attack the ship was moored northeast of Ford Island
Ford Island
Ford Island is located in the middle of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It is connected to the main island by the Ford Island Bridge. Before the bridge was built, Ford Island could only be reached by a ferry boat which ran at hourly intervals for cars and foot passengers. The island houses several naval...
with five destroyers, the , , , and .
The crew of the USS Dobbin watched helpless as Japanese planes targeted Battleship Row
Battleship Row
Battleship Row was the grouping of eight US battleships in port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941. These ships bore the brunt of the Japanese assault. They were moored next to Ford Island when the attack commenced. The ships were , , , , , , , and...
, but as the battleships each took heavy damage the Japanese pilots looked for other targets. The aircraft seeing that the ship had admiral flags tried to bomb the Dobbin but the ship only took shrapnel damage.
Dobbins small craft spent the morning picking up survivors and taking the wounded to shore. The ship picked up hundreds of sailors from other ships and when it left the harbor in search of the Japanese fleet had 200 men from the alone aboard.
World War II
After the attack, the Dobbin served in the Hawaiian area until May 1942 and then she was sent to Sydney, Australia. Dobbin was one of several Allied vessels located in Sydney Harbour during the Japanese midget submarine attackAttack on Sydney Harbour
In late May and early June 1942, during World War II, submarines belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy made a series of attacks on the cities of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia...
of 31 May 1942. On the 25 June 1943 she was sent to Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Mackay
Mackay, Queensland
Mackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
, Townsville, and Cleveland Bay
Cleveland Bay
The Cleveland Bay is a breed of horse that originated in England during the 17th century, named after its colouring and the Cleveland district of Yorkshire. It is a well-muscled horse, with legs that are strong but short in relation to the body. The horses are always bay in colour, although a...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, before arriving at Milne Bay
Milne Bay
Milne Bay is a large bay in Milne Bay Province, southeastern Papua New Guinea. The bay is named after Sir Alexander Milne.The area was a site of the Battle of Milne Bay in 1942....
, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, 30 September 1943. She stayed near New Guinea until 14 February 1945 at which point she returned to America and decommissioned 27 September 1946, and transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal 24 December 1946.
Dobbin received one battle star for World War II service.