Lexington Comes to the Rescue
By DAVID F. WINKLER
Responding to the devastation Hurricane Katrina inflicted on the Gulf
Coast in late August, the Navy sent several ships to provide relief
to citizens living in the region. As flooding in and around New Orleans
led to its evacuation, the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima became
a focal point of recovery efforts in the Crescent City.
Its flight deck served as a base for a variety of helicopter operations;
its berthing and messing facilities provided comfortable sleeping,
hot meals and showers to many of those assigned to meet the challenge;
its medical spaces cared for the local sick and injured; and its command-and-control
spaces served as a coordination point for the effort.
Although designed to carry Marines into harm’s way, Iwo Jima
proved quite adaptable for the relief effort. This flexibility has
been a hallmark of the U.S. Navy throughout its history. At the beginning
of the year, Navy warships led relief efforts after the tragic tsunami
in the eastern Indian Ocean.
Decades earlier, following a powerful earthquake in Japan in September
1923, the U.S. Asiatic Fleet anchored off Yokohama to provide assistance.
And in December 1929, one of the more unusual relief efforts in the
U.S. Navy’s history took place in the Pacific Northwest.
The aircraft carrier USS Lexington had been commissioned two years
earlier, Dec. 14, 1927, and joined the battle fleet a few months later.
The flattop originally had been designed as a battle cruiser, but to
comply with the Washington Naval Limitation Treaty of 1922, the U.S.
Navy radically altered its design.
The situation in the Pacific Northwest in 1929 was quite the opposite
of the deluge the Gulf Coast suffered at the hands of hurricanes Katrina
and Rita — there it was a drought that The New York Times declared
as unequaled in 39 years. In a region known for its damp, dreary weather,
constant blue skies in late 1929 lowered the water levels behind dams
on the Nisqually and Skokomish Rivers that fed hydroelectric power
plants. With power generation limited, electricity was rationed. Cascade
Power Co. curtailed operations and laid off 300 employees. At Fort
Lewis, soldiers daily found themselves in darkened barracks after 4
p.m.
The shortage of power, combined with the recent stock market crash,
threatened to wreck the region’s economy. Responding to an appeal
by Tacoma Mayor J.C. Newbegin, on Dec. 12, Secretary of the Navy Charles
Frances Adams dispatched the new aircraft carrier Lexington to Tacoma.
Three days later it anchored out.
The New York Times then reported, “With the help of five Navy
tugs and other local tugs, the 33,000-ton vessel, 888 feet long, was
made fast just two hours after her whistle warned that her anchors
were raised and she was ready to shift.”
As crowds watched the mooring from the pier and surrounding hills,
arrangements were made to hook the carrier up with the local power
grid. On Dec. 17, the Officer of the Deck, Lt. j.g. Richard Davis,
completing his 4 to 8 watch, wrote into the deck log: “Lighted
off following boilers, at 0400 #14, at 0500 #11 and at 0515 #10. At
0700, synchronized motors and began delivering power to the city of
Tacoma, Wash.”
Lexington’s generators supplied about a quarter of the city’s
needs, enough to keep the lights on and the factories open during the
holiday season. Fortunately, even as the carrier docked, rains fell
in quantities sufficient to break the drought. With enough water to
generate power, Tacoma bid farewell to Lexington on Jan. 16, 1930.
In appreciation, Lexington received a key to the city, and a bond
was forged between the city and the ship that would continue even after
the carrier was lost at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Today,
a replica of that key and other Lexington artifacts are featured at
Tacoma’s Working Waterfront Museum.
Dr. David F. Winkler is a historian with the Naval Historical Foundation.
