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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Cassin (DD-372) --
Damaged at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941

On 7 December 1941, USS Cassin was in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard's Drydock Number One. She was supported on blocks alongside USS Downes (DD-375), as both destroyers underwent modernization work to better suit them for contemporary combat conditions. That morning's Japanese air attack left both of them as ruined hulks. Some bombs hit them and fragments from others punctured their fuel oil tanks. The resulting fire badly damaged their structure, and, when the dry dock was flooded, Cassin lifted off the keel blocks and fell over against Downes. The explosion of ammunition and of a torpedo on Downes produced further major damage. By the time the fires were put out later on 7 December, the two ships were essentially wrecked beyond repair, with their hulls bent out of shape, plating wrinkled by heat and poked full of holes by explosion fragments.

This page features all our views of USS Cassin (DD-372) during and shortly after the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

For additional images of USS Cassin, see:

  • USS Cassin (DD-372), 1936-1947; and
  • USS Cassin -- Salvage, December 1941 - February 1942.

    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: 80-G-32580

    Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941


    View looking toward the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard from Ford Island, with a dredge in the middle distance, 7 December 1941.
    USS Downes (DD-375) and USS Cassin (DD-372) are burning in the front of Drydock Number One, center, with USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) also in the dock, at left center. USS Shaw (DD-373) is burning at right.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-32953

    Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941


    View looking down Pier 1010 toward the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard's Drydock Number One, in center, which holds the battleship Pennsylvania (BB-38) and the burning destroyers Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375).
    Alongside Pier 1010, in the center middle distance, are the light cruiser Helena (CL-50), listing slightly from a torpedo hit, and the capsized minelayer Oglala (CM-4).
    Taken on 7 December 1941.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-474789

    Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941


    View from Pier 1010, looking toward the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard's drydocks, with USS Shaw (DD-373) -- in floating drydock YFD-2 -- and USS Nevada (BB-36) burning at right, 7 December 1941.
    In the foreground is the capsized USS Oglala (CM-4), with USS Helena (CL-50) further down the pier, at left. Beyond Helena is Drydock Number One, with USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) and the burning destroyers Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375).

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 119KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-19943

    Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941


    The wrecked destroyers USS Downes (DD-375) and USS Cassin (DD-372) in Drydock One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, soon after the end of the Japanese air attack. Cassin has capsized against Downes.
    USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) is astern, occupying the rest of the drydock. The torpedo-damaged cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) is in the right distance, beyond the crane. Visible in the center distance is the capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37), with USS Maryland (BB-46) alongside. Smoke is from the sunken and burning USS Arizona (BB-39), out of view behind Pennsylvania. USS California (BB-44) is partially visible at the extreme left.
    This image has been attributed to Navy Photographer's Mate Harold Fawcett.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 158KB; 610 x 765 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 64482

    USS Cassin (DD-372)
    (capsized, right)
    and
    USS Downes (DD-375) (left)

    In Drydock Number One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on 7 December 1941, immediatly following the Japanese attack. Both ships had been severely damaged by bomb hits and the resulting fires.
    In the background, also in Drydock Number One, is USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), which had received relatively light damage in the raid.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 162KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-32511

    Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941


    USS Downes (DD-375), at left, and USS Cassin (DD-372), capsized at right, burned out and sunk in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard drydock on 7 December 1941, after the Japanese attack.
    The relatively undamaged USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) is in the background.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-32431

    Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941


    USS Cassin (DD-372) burned out and capsized against USS Downes (DD-375), in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard drydock on 7 December 1941, after the Japanese attack.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 54559

    USS Downes (DD-375)
    , nearest to camera,
    and
    USS Cassin (DD-372), capsized against Downes

    In Drydock Number One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, 8 December 1941, the day after they were wrecked by Japanese bombs and the resulting fires.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 134KB; 740 x 600 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-387598

    Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941


    Vertical aerial view of the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on 10 December 1941, showing damage from the Japanese raid three days earlier.
    In upper center is the floating drydock YFD-2, with the destroyer Shaw (DD-373), whose bow was blown off, floating at an angle at one end.
    The torpedoed cruiser Helena (CL-50) is in Drydock Number Two, in center, for repairs. She was the first ship to use that newly constructed dock.
    Drydock Number One is just below Drydock Number Two. It holds the relatively undamaged battleship Pennsylvania (BB-38) and the wrecked destroyers Cassin (DD-372), capsized, and Downes (DD-375).
    Note dark oil streaks on the harbor surface.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 178KB; 640 x 675 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     

    For additional images of USS Cassin, see:

  • USS Cassin (DD-372), 1936-1947; and
  • USS Cassin -- Salvage, December 1941 - February 1942.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    19 September 2000