USS Kane (DD-235)
The USS Kane (DD-235) served in the U.S. Navy for nearly three decades in the early 20th century. She was named for Elisha Kent Kane, a medical officer in the U.S. Navy who joined two Arctic missions in the 1850s to rescue an expedition led by Sir John Franklin. Kane was built as a Clemson-class ship.
Construction
Kane was laid down in Camden, New Jersey by the New York Shipbuilding Company in July 1918, launched in August 1919, and commissioned in June 1920, with Commander William Wall in command. Carrying a crew of 114, Kane was armed with four five-inch rapid-fire guns, one three-inch anti-aircraft gun, and twelve 21-inch torpedo tubes.
Naval History
Kane embarked on a cruise to Europe in August 1920, and encountered a mine in the Gulf of the Baltic Sea, away from minefields laid in World War I, in October. Following repairs in Sweden and an overhaul in England, Kane sailed for the Mediterranean in May 1921, and performed relief work off Turkey and carried supplies, medical aid, refugees, and relief workers between Black Sea ports and the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
In May 1923, Kane returned to the United States and operated with the Scouting Fleet off the east coast and the Caribbean, and then patrolled off Nicaragua and Honduras before being decommissioned at Philadelphia from December 1930 to April 1932. Kane was relocated to San Diego until 1936, when she sailed from New York to Spain to retrieve Americans endangered by the civil war there. In November 1937, Kane returned to the United States and was decommissioned in April 1938 at the Charleston Navy Yard.
Kane was reactivated in September 1939 and operated with the Neutrality Patrol in the North Atlantic, and then patrolled off of California beginning in November 1940. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Kane served as an escort along the west coast up to Alaska. In February 1942, she was converted to high-speed transport APD-18. Kane operated in the Aleutian Islands and later with the 5th Amphibious Force in the Marshall Islands.
Kane conducted patrols in the Philippines in July 1945 and escorted troops to Korea in September. She arrived at San Diego in December, was decommissioned at Philadelphia in January 1946, and was sold for scrap to the Northern Metals Company in June.
Asbestos Risk on the USS Kane (DD-235)
In ships built before the 1930s, much of the asbestos risk was below decks in engineering areas. Boilers, engines, turbines and generators were all likely to contain asbestos. Kane probably used the mineral in all those applications and more. If your loved one was a sailor on this ship and later suffered from mesothelioma, asbestos exposure aboard Kane may have contributed to his disease.
Sources
Haze Gray & Underway. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. DD-235.
http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd235txt.htm
NavSource Naval History, USS Kane (DD-235).
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/235.htm
