Robert Smith US Coast Guard USS Castor |
Since I was a member of the US Coast Guard at the time, I need to give you a little background on how I happened to be n Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I left the Port Townsend training station in a draft of twenty-five apprentice seamen headed for Honolulu. We boarded the USS Castor, a navel supply ship, in San Francisco on November 27, 1941, and arrived in Pearl Harbor on December 4, 1941. The ship tied up at the submarine base and we waited to be moved to the US Coast Guard Base in Honolulu. Instead, on Saturday, December 6, we were moved to the navel receiving station, given rooms and 48 hour passes and told to get lost. Sunday morning found me pushing a broom around the recreation building preparing for church services when planes with red spots on their wings appeared overhead. The recreation building was across the harbor from battleship row causing the torpedo bombers to fly very low over our heads. People like myself who were standing in the open, watching the show, began to be hit by strafing and falling shrapnel. Trucks soon arrived and we were taken to the docks and put aboard ships that were short of crew. I was put aboard the battleship USS Pennsylvania where I hand hoisted five-inch anti-aircraft shells in a forward magazine, by battle lamp, since the power was out. When I finally found my way back to the receiving station, I found that my room, sea bag and all my personal gear had been distributed to survivors from the sunken ships, who needed them more than I. For the next three days, I slept on the floor and spent twelve hours a day on work parties on several damaged ships. Our draft of twenty-five apprentice seamen finally arrived at our destination at pier four Honolulu on December 10, 1941. |
Information provided by Lester Ritchie. |
