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USS Yarborough (DD-314)
Encyclopedia
USS Yarborough (DD-314) was a Clemson-class
destroyer
in the United States Navy
. She was named for George Hampton Yarborough, Jr.
, by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
's Union Iron Works
plant; launched on 20 June 1919; sponsored by Miss Kate Burch, the fiancee of the late Lt. Yarborough; designated DD-314 on 17 July 1920; and commissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California
, on 31 December 1920, Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Rosendahl
—later the Navy's pre-eminent authority on airship
s — in command.
Following commissioning, Yarborough was fitted out at Mare Island into late January 1921 and departed the yard on the 25th, bound for Port Richmond, California
, where she fueled. After trials in San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay
, and San Pedro Bay
, the new destroyer tied up at the Reserve Dock at San Diego, California
, on 2 February. Outside of a trip to San Pedro with liberty parties embarked, the ship remained pierside through mid-April.
One event was noteworthy during the ship's largely port-bound routine in 1921. She embarked Marine
detachments from the cruiser
s and , both units under the command of 1st Lt. J. K. Martensteen, USMC, and transported them to Santa Catalina Island
on 18 April. Underway from San Diego at 0615 on the 18th, she stood into Isthmus Cove, Santa Catalina Island at 1145, anchoring at 1205. After landing the marines, she got underway and hove to briefly to embark a passenger - Capt. Franck T. Evans, the chief of staff to Commander, Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet and the son of the famous admiral Robley D. ("Fighting Bob") Evans - before she resumed her passage. Unfortunately, Yarborough collided with a buoy at the entrance to San Pedro harbor - an embarrassing occurrence in view of the ship's high-ranking passenger. Fortunately, the ship sustained only minor damage to a propeller blade, and no disciplinary action was taken.
Yarborough remained alongside the Santa Fe dock at San Diego until 30 June, when she headed for the Mare Island Navy Yard. After a drydocking, the destroyer ran trials off the southern California coast, during which she shipped heavy seas over the forecastle that caused some damage to her bridge on 11 July. Visiting San Francisco briefly, the destroyer returned to San Diego on the 13th, where she remained into mid-October.
Yarborough subsequently ran gunnery exercises and drills in company with her sistership late in October, after receiving on board a large draft of men from . Yarborough apparently joined the operating segment of the "rotating reserves" at that point because the rest of her career was largely one of operational activity.
She spent the majority of 1922 operating from San Diego, touching at ports in the Pacific Northwest like Port Angeles
and Seattle, Washington
, and familiar California
ports like San Diego and San Pedro. Upon occasion, she operated with the battleship
forces and conducted drills and exercises in antisubmarine screening, torpedo firings, and, of course, the staple, gunnery.
The following year, however, Yarborough began her voyages beyond what had become the usual west coast routine. After maneuvers out of San Pedro with the Battle Fleet
, Yarborough departed that port on 9 February 1923, bound for Magdalena Bay
, Mexico
. Arriving there on the 6th, in company with Destroyer Squadrons 11 and 12 and the destroyer tender , she was underway again two days later this time bound for Panama
.
In the succeeding days that February, Yarborough took part in the first of the large United States Fleet exercises - Fleet Problem I. Staged off the coast of Panama, Fleet Problem I pitted the Battle Fleet against an augmented Scouting Fleet
. Yarborough screened the Battle Fleet's dreadnoughts, often serving as a picket in a special defensive screen arrangement ahead of the heavy units. The exercise continued into March; and, during a lull in the maneuvers, Secretary of the Navy
Edwin C. Denby
, embarked in , reviewed the assembled forces on 14 March.
After further exercises, Yarborough departed the Panama area on 31 March as part of the screen for the northward-bound battleships. She arrived at San Diego on 11 April. For the remainder of the year, her schedule remained routine, operations within the vicinity of San Diego, San Francisco, or San Pedro, with a period under repairs at Mare Island and dry-docked on a marine railway at San Diego.
On 2 January 1924, Yarborough got underway for Panama to participate in the next series of fleet exercises - Fleet Problems II, III, and IV - conducted concurrently. Problem II simulated the first leg of a westward advance across the Pacific; Problem III tested the Caribbean defenses and the transit facilities of the Panama Canal
; and Problem IV simulated the movement from a main base in the western Pacific to the Japanese home islands—represented in that case by islands, cities, and countries surrounding the Caribbean.
Yarborough's role in the maneuvers was similar to those she had performed before. However, there was one exception because, during one phase of the exercises, she operated with —the Navy's first aircraft carrier
. She screened Langley on 25 January and witnessed an air attack upon the ship by planes of the "black" fleet. The destroyer also performed those tasks for which she had been designed (torpedo attacks and screening maneuvers) both with and against battleships. Yarborough and her sister-ships participated in the intensive exercises through late February, after which the destroyer paid a brief call upon New Orleans, Louisiana
, her only visit ever to that port, between 1 March and 11 March.
After further exercises off Puerto Rico
, Yarborough headed for home; transited the Panama Canal on 8 April; and arrived at San Diego on the 22d. For the remainder of the year, she operated in and around her home port.
The Scouting Fleet once more "battled" the Battle Fleet in March 1925, in Fleet Problem V, off the coast of Baja California
. After that series of exercises which trained the Fleet in protective screening, seizing and occupying an unfortified anchorage, fueling at sea, and conducting submarine attacks, the Fleet set its course westward.
Yarborough departed San Francisco as part of this movement on 15 April 1925. Her log noted: "underway in company with the United States Fleet
to engage in joint Army
and Navy Problem No. 3 and proceed to the Hawaiian Islands." Screening Battleship Division 5, as a unit of Destroyer Division 34, she proceeded via Mamala Bay, Oahu
, and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 28 April. When the Fleet later concentrated in Lahaina Roads
, Maui
, Yarborough served a brief tour as guardship, patrolling off the entrance to the Fleet anchorage.
During subsequent maneuvers out of Lahaina, Yarborough and her mates performed as "Cruiser Division 1" for the sake of the exercise, acting in that guise from 19 May to 29 May, before returning to Pearl Harbor for upkeep.
After visiting Hilo, Yarborough departed Pearl Harbor on 1 July 1925, bound for the South Pacific as part of the Fleet's Australian cruise. Yarborough subsequently visited Pago Pago, Samoa
, from 10 July to 11 July; Melbourne
, Australia, from 23 July to 30 July; Lyttelton, New Zealand
, from 11 August to 21 August; and Wellington, New Zealand, from 22 August to 24 August. Returning via Pago Pago, Yarborough and her division mates were pressed into service on 7 September as part of the dragnet searching for the downed PN-9 No. 1 - a flying boat which attempted to make a flight from the west coast to Hawaii. Destroyer Division 34's ships steamed at eight-mile (13 km) intervals in a scouting line and searched over the next three days before word reached them that PN-9 No. 1 had been found, her crew having stripped the plane's lower wings and used the fabric to rig a sail that had taken them close to Oahu.
Yarborough eventually returned via Pearl Harbor to San Diego on 19 September and remained in the vicinity of her home port for the remainder of 1925. Early the following year, 1926, she took part in Fleet Problem VI, off the west coast of Central America, operating with the Battle Fleet and its train convoy against the "enemy" forces as represented by the Scouting Fleet and Control Force. Yarborough later visited Port Aberdeen, Port Angeles, Washington, and the Puget Sound Navy Yard before she rounded out the year operating locally from San Diego.
The year 1927 proved to be a busy one for Yarborough, one that she began, as usual, at San Diego. Departing that port on 17 February, the destroyer transited the Panama Canal on 5 March, Atlantic-bound. The loss of the German steamship , however, forced a change in plans. Yarborough re-transited the canal four days later, on 9 March, and headed for the Galápagos Islands
in company with the rest of Destroyer Division 34. Forming a scouting line, the flush-deckers combed the seas for survivors of the Albatross. During the search, Yarborough often operated in sight of her sisterships and but found nothing. Abandoning the search on the 13th, the ship retransmitted the canal and rejoined the Fleet.
Participating in Fleet Problem VII later that month, Yarborough operated off Gonaïves
, Haiti
, and visited Staten Island
and New York late in May and early in June. While in the New York area, the destroyer participated in the presidential review, when President Calvin Coolidge
inspected the Fleet from the decks of his presidential yacht, Mayflower, on 4 June.
Yarborough subsequently headed for Panama, arriving at Colon on 9 June. She shifted to Puerto Cabezas
, Nicaragua
, soon thereafter, due to an outbreak of unrest there. She joined and in guarding American interests in that port before heading back to Colon, retransiting the Panama Canal, and undergoing a drydocking at Balboa. She returned to Puerto Cabezas on 9 July and found and Shirk in port.
Yarborough remained at Puerto Cabezas into early August, drilling her landing force in light marching order early in the deployment to be ready for any emergency. The destroyer sailed for the Panama Canal on 5 August, transited the canal on the 7th, and arrived at San Diego on the 23rd. She exercised out of San Diego and off San Clemente Island for the rest of 1927.
The following spring, Yarborough again operated in Hawaiian waters, taking part in Fleet Problem VIII which was staged between San Francisco and Honolulu. Returning to the west coast upon completion of that group of maneuvers, the destroyer continued her regular schedule of operations in tactics and gunnery out of Port Angeles, San Diego, and San Pedro.
Yarborough participated in her final large-scale maneuvers in January 1929, operating between San Diego and the westward side of the Panama Canal Zone, in Fleet Problem IX. That problem - significant in that the new aircraft carrier participated in the Fleet's war games for the first time - pitted the Battle Fleet (less submarines and Lexington) against a combination of forces including the Scouting Force (augmented by Lexington), the Control Forces, Train Squadron 1, and 15th Naval District and local Army defense forces. The scenario studied the effects of an attack upon the Panama Canal and conducted the operations necessary to carry out such an eventuality. As before, Yarborough's role was with the Battle Fleet, screening the dreadnoughts of the battle line.
After alternating periods in port and operating locally, Yarborough was moored at the Destroyer Base at San Diego that autumn and prepared for decommissioning. Simultaneously, she participated in the reactivation of ships that had been in reserve during the past few years. Two of those ships were and .
. Scrapped on 20 December of the same year, her remains were sold as scrap metal on 25 February 1932.
As of 2005, no other ships have been named Yarborough.
Clemson class destroyer
The Clemson class was a series of 156 destroyers which served with the United States Navy from after World War I through World War II.The Clemson-class ships were commissioned by the United States Navy from 1919 to 1922, built by Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, New York Shipbuilding...
destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
in the 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...
. She was named for George Hampton Yarborough, Jr.
George Yarborough
George Hampton Yarborough, Jr. was an officer in the United States Marine Corps and a recipient of the Navy Cross.-Biography:...
History
Yarborough was laid down on 27 February 1919 at San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation
Bethlehem Steel Corporation Shipbuilding Division was created in 1905 when Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the San Francisco shipyard Union Iron Works in 1905...
's Union Iron Works
Union Iron Works
Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.-History:...
plant; launched on 20 June 1919; sponsored by Miss Kate Burch, the fiancee of the late Lt. Yarborough; designated DD-314 on 17 July 1920; and commissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...
, on 31 December 1920, Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Rosendahl
Charles E. Rosendahl
Charles Emery Rosendahl was a Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, and an advocate of lighter-than-air flight.-Early career:...
—later the Navy's pre-eminent authority on airship
Airship
An airship or dirigible is a type of aerostat or "lighter-than-air aircraft" that can be steered and propelled through the air using rudders and propellers or other thrust mechanisms...
s — in command.
Following commissioning, Yarborough was fitted out at Mare Island into late January 1921 and departed the yard on the 25th, bound for Port Richmond, California
Port Richmond, California
For other ports with similar names see: Port Richmond The Port of Richmond is a major shipping terminal in California's San Francisco Bay.-History:...
, where she fueled. After trials in San Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
, and San Pedro Bay
San Pedro Bay (California)
San Pedro Bay is an inlet on the Pacific Ocean coast of southern California, United States. It is the site of the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, which together form the fifth-busiest port facility in the world and easily the busiest in the Western Hemisphere...
, the new destroyer tied up at the Reserve Dock at San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, on 2 February. Outside of a trip to San Pedro with liberty parties embarked, the ship remained pierside through mid-April.
One event was noteworthy during the ship's largely port-bound routine in 1921. She embarked Marine
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
detachments from the cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
s and , both units under the command of 1st Lt. J. K. Martensteen, USMC, and transported them to Santa Catalina Island
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
on 18 April. Underway from San Diego at 0615 on the 18th, she stood into Isthmus Cove, Santa Catalina Island at 1145, anchoring at 1205. After landing the marines, she got underway and hove to briefly to embark a passenger - Capt. Franck T. Evans, the chief of staff to Commander, Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet and the son of the famous admiral Robley D. ("Fighting Bob") Evans - before she resumed her passage. Unfortunately, Yarborough collided with a buoy at the entrance to San Pedro harbor - an embarrassing occurrence in view of the ship's high-ranking passenger. Fortunately, the ship sustained only minor damage to a propeller blade, and no disciplinary action was taken.
Yarborough remained alongside the Santa Fe dock at San Diego until 30 June, when she headed for the Mare Island Navy Yard. After a drydocking, the destroyer ran trials off the southern California coast, during which she shipped heavy seas over the forecastle that caused some damage to her bridge on 11 July. Visiting San Francisco briefly, the destroyer returned to San Diego on the 13th, where she remained into mid-October.
Yarborough subsequently ran gunnery exercises and drills in company with her sistership late in October, after receiving on board a large draft of men from . Yarborough apparently joined the operating segment of the "rotating reserves" at that point because the rest of her career was largely one of operational activity.
She spent the majority of 1922 operating from San Diego, touching at ports in the Pacific Northwest like Port Angeles
Port Angeles, Washington
Port Angeles is a city in and the county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,038 at the 2010 census. The area's harbor was dubbed Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza in 1791, but by the mid-19th century the name had...
and Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, and familiar California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
ports like San Diego and San Pedro. Upon occasion, she operated with the battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
forces and conducted drills and exercises in antisubmarine screening, torpedo firings, and, of course, the staple, gunnery.
The following year, however, Yarborough began her voyages beyond what had become the usual west coast routine. After maneuvers out of San Pedro with the Battle Fleet
Battle Fleet
The United States Battle Fleet or Battle Force was part of the organization of the United States Navy from 1922 to 1941.The General Order of 6 December 1922 organized the United States Fleet, with the Battle Fleet as the Pacific presence. This fleet comprised the main body of ships in the Navy,...
, Yarborough departed that port on 9 February 1923, bound for Magdalena Bay
Magdalena Bay
Bahía Magdalena is a 50 km long bay in Comondú Municipality along the western coast of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. It is protected from the Pacific Ocean by the sandy barrier islands of Isla Magdalena and Isla Santa Margarita....
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Arriving there on the 6th, in company with Destroyer Squadrons 11 and 12 and the destroyer tender , she was underway again two days later this time bound for Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
.
In the succeeding days that February, Yarborough took part in the first of the large United States Fleet exercises - Fleet Problem I. Staged off the coast of Panama, Fleet Problem I pitted the Battle Fleet against an augmented Scouting Fleet
Scouting Fleet
The Scouting Fleet was part of the United States Fleet in the United States Navy, and renamed the Scouting Force in 1930.Established in 1922, the fleet consisted mainly of older battleships and initially operated in the Atlantic...
. Yarborough screened the Battle Fleet's dreadnoughts, often serving as a picket in a special defensive screen arrangement ahead of the heavy units. The exercise continued into March; and, during a lull in the maneuvers, Secretary of the Navy
United States Secretary of the Navy
The Secretary of the Navy of the United States of America is the head of the Department of the Navy, a component organization of the Department of Defense...
Edwin C. Denby
Edwin C. Denby
Edwin Denby was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of the Navy in the administrations of Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge from 1921 to 1924. He also played a notable role in the infamous Teapot Dome scandal which took place during the Harding presidency. He was the son...
, embarked in , reviewed the assembled forces on 14 March.
After further exercises, Yarborough departed the Panama area on 31 March as part of the screen for the northward-bound battleships. She arrived at San Diego on 11 April. For the remainder of the year, her schedule remained routine, operations within the vicinity of San Diego, San Francisco, or San Pedro, with a period under repairs at Mare Island and dry-docked on a marine railway at San Diego.
On 2 January 1924, Yarborough got underway for Panama to participate in the next series of fleet exercises - Fleet Problems II, III, and IV - conducted concurrently. Problem II simulated the first leg of a westward advance across the Pacific; Problem III tested the Caribbean defenses and the transit facilities of the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
; and Problem IV simulated the movement from a main base in the western Pacific to the Japanese home islands—represented in that case by islands, cities, and countries surrounding the Caribbean.
Yarborough's role in the maneuvers was similar to those she had performed before. However, there was one exception because, during one phase of the exercises, she operated with —the Navy's first aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
. She screened Langley on 25 January and witnessed an air attack upon the ship by planes of the "black" fleet. The destroyer also performed those tasks for which she had been designed (torpedo attacks and screening maneuvers) both with and against battleships. Yarborough and her sister-ships participated in the intensive exercises through late February, after which the destroyer paid a brief call upon New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, her only visit ever to that port, between 1 March and 11 March.
After further exercises off Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Yarborough headed for home; transited the Panama Canal on 8 April; and arrived at San Diego on the 22d. For the remainder of the year, she operated in and around her home port.
The Scouting Fleet once more "battled" the Battle Fleet in March 1925, in Fleet Problem V, off the coast of Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...
. After that series of exercises which trained the Fleet in protective screening, seizing and occupying an unfortified anchorage, fueling at sea, and conducting submarine attacks, the Fleet set its course westward.
Yarborough departed San Francisco as part of this movement on 15 April 1925. Her log noted: "underway in company with the United States Fleet
United States Fleet
The United States Fleet was an organization in the United States Navy from 1922 until after World War II. The abbreviation CINCUS, pronounced "sink us", was used for Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet. This title was disposed of and officially replaced by COMINCH in December 1941 . This...
to engage in joint Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
and Navy Problem No. 3 and proceed to the Hawaiian Islands." Screening Battleship Division 5, as a unit of Destroyer Division 34, she proceeded via Mamala Bay, Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
, and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 28 April. When the Fleet later concentrated in Lahaina Roads
Lahaina Roads
Lahaina Roads, also called the Lahaina Roadstead is a channel of the Pacific Ocean in the Hawaiian Islands. The surrounding islands of Maui, and Lānai make it a sheltered anchorage....
, Maui
Maui
The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...
, Yarborough served a brief tour as guardship, patrolling off the entrance to the Fleet anchorage.
During subsequent maneuvers out of Lahaina, Yarborough and her mates performed as "Cruiser Division 1" for the sake of the exercise, acting in that guise from 19 May to 29 May, before returning to Pearl Harbor for upkeep.
After visiting Hilo, Yarborough departed Pearl Harbor on 1 July 1925, bound for the South Pacific as part of the Fleet's Australian cruise. Yarborough subsequently visited Pago Pago, Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
, from 10 July to 11 July; Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia, from 23 July to 30 July; Lyttelton, New Zealand
Lyttelton, New Zealand
Lyttelton is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour close to Banks Peninsula, a suburb of Christchurch on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand....
, from 11 August to 21 August; and Wellington, New Zealand, from 22 August to 24 August. Returning via Pago Pago, Yarborough and her division mates were pressed into service on 7 September as part of the dragnet searching for the downed PN-9 No. 1 - a flying boat which attempted to make a flight from the west coast to Hawaii. Destroyer Division 34's ships steamed at eight-mile (13 km) intervals in a scouting line and searched over the next three days before word reached them that PN-9 No. 1 had been found, her crew having stripped the plane's lower wings and used the fabric to rig a sail that had taken them close to Oahu.
Yarborough eventually returned via Pearl Harbor to San Diego on 19 September and remained in the vicinity of her home port for the remainder of 1925. Early the following year, 1926, she took part in Fleet Problem VI, off the west coast of Central America, operating with the Battle Fleet and its train convoy against the "enemy" forces as represented by the Scouting Fleet and Control Force. Yarborough later visited Port Aberdeen, Port Angeles, Washington, and the Puget Sound Navy Yard before she rounded out the year operating locally from San Diego.
The year 1927 proved to be a busy one for Yarborough, one that she began, as usual, at San Diego. Departing that port on 17 February, the destroyer transited the Panama Canal on 5 March, Atlantic-bound. The loss of the German steamship , however, forced a change in plans. Yarborough re-transited the canal four days later, on 9 March, and headed for the Galápagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
in company with the rest of Destroyer Division 34. Forming a scouting line, the flush-deckers combed the seas for survivors of the Albatross. During the search, Yarborough often operated in sight of her sisterships and but found nothing. Abandoning the search on the 13th, the ship retransmitted the canal and rejoined the Fleet.
Participating in Fleet Problem VII later that month, Yarborough operated off Gonaïves
Gonaïves
Gonaïves is a city in northern Haiti, the capital of the Artibonite Department. It has a population of about 104,825 people . The city's name derives from the original Amerindian name of Gonaibo. It is also known as Haïti's "independence city"...
, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, and visited Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
and New York late in May and early in June. While in the New York area, the destroyer participated in the presidential review, when President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
inspected the Fleet from the decks of his presidential yacht, Mayflower, on 4 June.
Yarborough subsequently headed for Panama, arriving at Colon on 9 June. She shifted to Puerto Cabezas
Puerto Cabezas
Puerto Cabezas is a municipality in, and capital of, the North Atlantic Coast department of Nicaragua....
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, soon thereafter, due to an outbreak of unrest there. She joined and in guarding American interests in that port before heading back to Colon, retransiting the Panama Canal, and undergoing a drydocking at Balboa. She returned to Puerto Cabezas on 9 July and found and Shirk in port.
Yarborough remained at Puerto Cabezas into early August, drilling her landing force in light marching order early in the deployment to be ready for any emergency. The destroyer sailed for the Panama Canal on 5 August, transited the canal on the 7th, and arrived at San Diego on the 23rd. She exercised out of San Diego and off San Clemente Island for the rest of 1927.
The following spring, Yarborough again operated in Hawaiian waters, taking part in Fleet Problem VIII which was staged between San Francisco and Honolulu. Returning to the west coast upon completion of that group of maneuvers, the destroyer continued her regular schedule of operations in tactics and gunnery out of Port Angeles, San Diego, and San Pedro.
Yarborough participated in her final large-scale maneuvers in January 1929, operating between San Diego and the westward side of the Panama Canal Zone, in Fleet Problem IX. That problem - significant in that the new aircraft carrier participated in the Fleet's war games for the first time - pitted the Battle Fleet (less submarines and Lexington) against a combination of forces including the Scouting Force (augmented by Lexington), the Control Forces, Train Squadron 1, and 15th Naval District and local Army defense forces. The scenario studied the effects of an attack upon the Panama Canal and conducted the operations necessary to carry out such an eventuality. As before, Yarborough's role was with the Battle Fleet, screening the dreadnoughts of the battle line.
After alternating periods in port and operating locally, Yarborough was moored at the Destroyer Base at San Diego that autumn and prepared for decommissioning. Simultaneously, she participated in the reactivation of ships that had been in reserve during the past few years. Two of those ships were and .
Fate
Yarborough was decommissioned on 29 May 1930; and, on 3 November 1930, her name was struck from the Navy ListNaval Vessel Register
The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...
. Scrapped on 20 December of the same year, her remains were sold as scrap metal on 25 February 1932.
As of 2005, no other ships have been named Yarborough.
External links
- DD-314 Photo
- http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/314.htm