USS Selfridge (DD-357)
The USS Selfridge (DD-357) was a member of the U.S. Navy for about a decade in the early 20th century. She was named for Rear Admiral Thomas O. Selfridge who served as Commandant of Mare Island Navy Yard. Selfridge was laid down as a Porter-class vessel.
Construction
Selfridge was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in December 1933, launched in April 1936, and commissioned in November with Commander H.D. Clarke in command. Carrying a crew of 194, Selfridge was 381 feet long and armed with eight 5-inch anti-aircraft guns, eight 1.1 inch anti-aircraft guns, and eight 21-inch torpedo tubes.
Naval History
Selfridge sailed the Mediterranean in January and February 1937, returned to the east coast, and then was assigned to the Battle force in the Pacific. She served on Presidential escort missions, and became flagship of Destroyer Squadron 4 in December 1937. Selfridge was reassigned to Pearl Harbor in 1940, where she had just returned to from an escort mission when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941. During the attack, Selfridge fired on enemy planes and then conducted patrols off Oahu.
Selfridge served as a screen for the aircraft carrier Saratoga until January 1942, when the carrier was torpedoed, and patrolled Hawaiian waters until being assigned to escort duty later in the month. In April, Selfridge brought Marine Corps and mail to Palmyra and Christmas islands, and escorted convoys for reinforcements to Samoa, New Hebrides, and Australia where she remained until July as part of TF 44. Selfridge also operated at Guadalcanal and aided survivors of the Battle of Savo Island in August.
Selfridge was reassigned to the 3rd Fleet in May and in October encountered enemy forces off Marquana Bay, where she was badly damaged by a torpedo. Thirteen crew members were killed and 36 went missing. Selfridge underwent temporary repairs in the region and was permanently fixed at Mare Island. She then went on to serve in Guam, at Saipan to conduct shore bombardment during minesweeping operations, and in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Selfridge arrived at New York in September and joined TF 65 as flagship to serve trans-Atlantic escort duty between the east coast and Tunisia until May 1945. Following fleet exercises in the Caribbean and off Maine through August, she was decommissioned in October and sold for scrap to George H. Nutman, Inc. in December 1946.
Asbestos Risk on the USS Selfridge (DD-357)
Since material contaminated with asbestos was found nearly everywhere aboard Selfridge, essentially all crewmen would have been exposed at one point or another. The United States Navy understood the value of fireproof insulation aboard its ships and continued to use asbestos up to the 1970s. Nearly every section on board Selfridge contained asbestos, in thermal insulation for compartments, inside the valves and pumps that were common throughout the vessel, and in the asbestos insulation used to wrap steam pipes.
An exposed crewman's probability of developing pleural mesothelioma goes up significantly if his or her job involved contact with frayed asbestos fibers. Asbestos insulation damaged in combat was especially dangerous because the material became "friable", meaning the individual fibers began to separate from the insulation. Because broken material containing asbestos creates a fine dust which is breathed in easily, working in repairs meant much more significant risk. Legal recourse exists for those who have contracted mesothelioma.
Sources
Haze Gray & Underway. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. DD-357.
http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd357txt.htm
NavSource Naval History, USS Selfridge (DD-357).
http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/357.htm
