Description

One of the lesser known survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor was the USS Vestal a repair ship that was tied up alongside the USS Arizona at the time. The Vestal was originally built as a fleet collier in 1909, she was converted to a repair ship and served in that capacity during the first world war. The Vestal was assigned to the Pacific Fleet and based at Pearl Harbor. She was hit twice by bombs and damaged by the catastrophic magazine explosion of the Arizona. In order to save the ship was grounded to prevent her sinking. The Vestal was quickly repaired and put back into service and sailed to the South Pacific where she helped repair ship then fighting in the Solomon Islands. The ships repaired by Vestal reads like a who's who of the Pacific War, with clients such as the Big E, South Dakota, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Pensacola, just to name a few. While she never sank an enemy ship she was instrumental in helping to stem the tide of the war during the crucial resource short early days of WW2. She survived the war earning two battle stars for her service, not bad for a repair ship.