"USS CASSIN YOUNG" Sign

Sign titled "USS CASSIN YOUNG."

NPS Photo/MWoods

Quick Facts

Location:

Pier 1 facing the USS CASSIN YOUNG

Description

Low-profile wayside that is 36.5 x 24.5 inches. It has a black semi-cylindrical base with two rectangular pillars supporting the panel. The panel is framed in black metal. The sign is located on Pier 1 facing the USS Cassin Young.

Layout

At the top of the sign is a black banner with white text. The text includes the title, “USS Cassin Young,” aligned to the left. Aligned to the right in the banner are two columns of two lines of text. The first column of text is “Boston National Historical Park,” followed by “Charlestown Navy Yard.” The second column states “National Park Service,” followed by “U.S. Department of the Interior.” The rest of the panel has a gray background with black text, black and white images, and a color map. The top third of the panel has a diagram of a destroyer looking at the starboard side of the ship. The mast of the ship intersects the black banner at the top. Above the left end of the diagram are two columns of text serving as a diagram caption. The caption title is bolded, while the other text is italicized. Above the right end of the diagram is a short list of measurements about the ship. Directly below the diagram is two columns of text, taking up two-thirds of the panel’s width. Beneath these columns of text is a black bar with three images spaced beneath it. In the black bar are titles of the images. To the right of the text and images in the bottom right third of the panel is a map outlined in black. A thicker black strip above the map features white text aligned left. The map has mostly black labels with areas of importance labeled in red. Beneath the map are two short columns of text related to the map. Dates are bolded. Points that are labeled in red in the map are also printed in red within this text.

Ship Diagram

The ship fills the full width of the panel, with the stern on the left and the bow on the right. The ship’s hull is divided into the three sections from top to bottom. The bottom portion of the ship is a salmon color, likely to indicate the part of the ship that is beneath the water. The middle section is a thin black bar on the hull of the ship. The top portion of the hull is white. On top of the hull is the rest of the ship which includes guns, smoke stacks, and an observation deck, which are mostly white with black outlines. Different parts of the ship are sometimes identified by a black vertical line with text adjacent to the left. From stern to bow (or from left to right of the diagram) the first is at the stern of the ship where a track is visible. This is identified as the “Depth charge release track.” Directly to the right of this marker is a gun on the deck that is a “20 mm anti-aircraft gun.” A little bit of empty space on the deck separates this gun from a larger gun on the deck that points over the stern. Raised to the right of this gun is another one, pointing in the same direction. To the right is a smaller gun that is identified as a “40 mm anti-aircraft gun.” The next gun to the right is similar to the two prior to the 40 mm gun. It is labeled as a “5” air/surface gun.” To the right of this gun is a “21” torpedo mount.” At the center of the ship are two smokestacks, one after another, separated by another torpedo mount. To the right of these smokestacks is a raised platform that serves as the observation deck of the destroyer. To the right of the deck is the bow of the ship, which has two more 5” guns, one raised above the other and both pointing out towards the bow.

Text (Above Diagram, Left)

The Fletcher Class. A destroyer’s design balances speed and weaponry. Often the ship’s mission is to “screen” or protect a ship of greater strategic value. Of 175 Fletcher Class destroyers built during World War II, 171 went to war in the Pacific. The Charlestown Navy Yard built 14 of these ships.

Text (Above Diagram, Right):

DD-793 as built December 1943
Length 376ft.-6in.
Beam 39ft.-8in.
Draft 17ft.-9in.
Displacement 2050 tons std.
Top Speed 36 knots (41 MPH)
Crew 325

Main Text

USS Cassin Young (DD-793), a Fletcher-class destroyer built in San Pedro, California, was commissioned on December 31, 1943. The ship honors Captain Cassin Young, who earned the Medal of Honor at Pearl Harbor, and later died in the Battle of Guadalcanal. USS Cassin Young logged nearly 150,000 miles in the Pacific in World War II. While on radar “picket duty” at Okinawa, the ship sustained two kamikaze hits, leaving 127 Americans dead or wounded. USS Cassin Young again served in the Korean Conflict, and during the 1950s visited the Charlestown Navy Yard four times for modernization and repair. The ship was decommissioned in 1960 but returned to Dry Dock 1 in 1978 for an overhaul to restore a 1950s appearance. USS Cassin Young opened to the public in 1981 as part of Boston National Historical Park.

Image (Bottom Left)

Black and white photograph looking down on sailors in uniforms on the deck of the ship. Along the bottom of the photograph are two rows of four sailors, beginning at the bottom of the image. Their backs are turned towards the water. Facing the water is a row of six sailors. Each sailor stands along the railing of the deck and points their rifle over the side out to the water. Behind the two men closest to the other sailors is another sailor. The sailor, possibly an officer, faces the men with the guns.

Image Title (Bottom Left)

Burial at sea (1945)

Image (Bottom Middle)

Black and white photograph of six ships floating in choppy water side by side. The ship on the far left is almost twice the height of the rest of the ships. It is dark and the deck is barely visible from the water. The rest of the ships are all the same size and design, with the observation decks visible and radar antennas pointing into the sky. Small people are barely visible on the decks. Below the image in the right corner is text reading “National Archives.”

Image Title (Bottom Middle)

DD-793 (far right) alongside a tender at Ulithi (1944)

Image (Bottom Right)

Black and white group photograph of 14 sailors. They are divided among three rows. The four men in the first row sit on the ground with their legs crossed. The man on the left wears a long-sleeve shirt while the other three have rolled up their sleeves beyond their elbows. They wear dark pants and dark caps. The five men in the middle row are crouched on their knees. They also rolled up the sleeves of their shirts. The man on the left and the man in the middle wear light-colored hats while the other three wear dark caps. Five men stand in the back row. The man on the left is an officer and wears an officer’s uniform and hat. The man to the right wears an all-white uniform. The final three men wear light shirts and have rolled up their long sleeves. The also wear dark caps.

Image Title (Bottom Right)

Fire control crew (1944)

Map

This map is of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding countries. The ocean is blue and the land masses are light tan. The right two-thirds of the map is mainly ocean, with part of Alaska peaking out from the top right corner, labeled “Alaska.” The water is labeled “Pacific Ocean.” Land fills the top left corner of the map. This area is labeled “Soviet Union.” Just southeast of the Soviet Union is Korea with Japan off its coast. Both of these countries are labeled. China is visible in the center of the left edge of the map and is also labeled. To the southeast of China are islands that are labeled “Philippines.” Peeking out from the bottom border of the map, about one-third of the width from the left bottom corner is land labeled “Australia.” A legend is labeled and located in the right corner of the map, in the middle of the ocean. The legend consists of two lines. The first includes a small plane next to the label “Kamikaze hits.” The second line has a cross labeled “USS Princeton sinks.” Above the legend on the right side of the ocean is an island labeled “Midway” (left) and “Hawaiian Islands” across islands to the right. Within the Hawaiian Islands is a label “Pearl Harbor.” The focus of the map is on two thick blue sweeping lines with arrows at the end. They both begin near the bottom border of the map, about a third of the width from the right border. They are labeled in blue as “Allied Offensives.” The right line sweeps up towards the center of the map with a slight curve to the left. It passes islands labeled “Kwajalein” and “Wake.” There is a bend in the curve where the line reaches “Saipan,” labeled in red. Here, a thin blue line breaks off west and points to the Philippines, passing “Leyte Gulf,” also labeled in red. Two thin blue lines break off this thin line and each point South. The one to the right points to “Guam.” The one to the left points to an island next to Leyte Gulf. An island between these two lines is labeled “Ulithi.” The original thick blue line continues past the bend and curves up. It passes Iwo Jima and Okinawa, both labeled in red. The arrow ends just beyond Okinawa where there are two planes from the legend. The second thick blue line travels up into the map to the left of the other thick blue line. It passes by Guadalcanal and moves up towards the Philippines. It travels past the Leyte Gulf where the small arrow meets it. The big arrow points to islands in the Philippines labeled “FORMOSA” and beneath it, “Luzon.” Off the eastern coast of Luzon is the cross from the legend. A final thin blue line points away from the Philippines southwest and travels between the continent and an island. On the coast of the continent is a spot marked “Cam Ranh Bay” in red.

Map Title

USS Cassin Young in the Pacific Theater, 1944-1945

Map Text

May/June 1944: Sails from Pearl Harbor. First fires on the enemy at Saipan. October 1944: +Battle of Leyte Gulf. Rescues over 120 survivors of light carrier USS Princeton. December 1944: Rides out typhoon off Luzon: Destroyers Hull, Monaghan, and Spence capsize. January to March 1945: Screens air attacks at Formosa, Luzon, Cam Ranh Bay, Iwo Jima, Okinawa. April 12, 1945: [image of plane] Survives kamikaze hit at Picket No. 1, NW of Okinawa. July 30, 1945: [image of plan] Survives kamikaze hit at Picket No. 9A, SW of Okinawa. August 1945: Returns to Pearl Harbor. The war is over.