Talk:List of United States Navy ships present at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

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Does this non-USN but USCG ship belong?[edit]

The USCGC Taney (WHEC-37) was in Honolulu during the attack, and according to its wiki article, is the last ship still afloat that fought in the attack. Since it is Coast Guard, does it belong or not? I'd think it does since the article says the ship was transferred to the navy earlier in 1941 for use in protection in the same role as the old destroyers. -MBK004 03:24, 24 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I went by the USN list for Pearl Harbor. It only included ships in or very close to Pearl Harbor. Honolulu Harbor is a few miles southeast so I don't think it was included or targeted in the attack.[1] However, the USN historical folks chose to include Navajo, which was 12 miles outside Pearl Harbor entrance and Vega, which was in Honolulu, so I'm not sure. I primarily used this list, but since it didn't include Taney, we could also remove Vega and Navajo since they weren't in the Harbor. --Dual Freq (talk) 04:00, 24 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I think that if Navajo and Vega are included, then Taney should be as well. If not, then all three shouldn't belong. My reasoning that Taney was a USN vessel stands from this excerpt from the Taney article:
"On 25 July 1941, the Coast Guard cutter was transferred to the Navy and reported for duty with the local defense forces of the 14th Naval District, maintaining her base at Honolulu.
Outside of another "line island cruise" in the late summer, Taney operated locally out of Honolulu into the critical fall of 1941. She conducted regular harbor entrance and channel patrols, alternating often with one of the four old destroyers of Destroyer Division 80: USS Allen (DD-66), Schley (DD-103), Chew (DD-106), and Ward (DD-139).
World War II
The message: "Air Raid, Pearl Harbor. This is no drill" came at 07:55 on 7 December, as Japanese planes swept overhead in an attempt to cripple the Pacific Fleet. Taney, moored alongside Pier 6, Honolulu harbor, stood to her anti-aircraft guns swiftly when word of the surprise attack reached her simultaneously."
Accordingly, it seems like the Taney was a USN vessel during this timeframe. -MBK004 05:07, 24 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed Vega and Navajo. It's interesting to me that Wikipedia duplicates the Taney DANFS article nearly word for word EXCEPT, wikipedia excludes the following sentence, "...the surprise attack reached her simultaneously. As no Japanese attacks were directed at Honolulu harbor, the Coast Guard cutter was only given the opportunity to fire at stray aircraft which happened to venture into her vicinity. She was firing upon unidentified aircraft as late as noon, indicating that the eager Coast Guardsmen were probably shooting at American planes—not Japanese." --Dual Freq (talk) 16:09, 24 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What about USS Utah? It was being used as a target ship (target tow) and was moored on the other side of Ford Island. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bryangentsch (talkcontribs) 05:25, 2 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Other resources[edit]

I relied mostly on the above US navy list, the DANFS articles and the After action reports, but NavSource.org has more information. This map was a big help in visualizing where the ships were, but I did find a couple errors. (Number of ships at position 1 and 2 / middle loch area, but I don't remember which was wrong) This list includes smaller ships that the USN list excluded and I also excluded in the lead sentence. It includes the PT-boats and yard craft as well as the USCG cutters in Honolulu. --Dual Freq (talk) 05:02, 24 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is also a discrepancy with USS Shaw, DANFS says YFD-3, but the NHC image page for the Shaw explosion and other sources say YFD-2. I went with -3 because of DANFS, but I'm having second thoughts about that. --Dual Freq (talk) 15:40, 24 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Shouldn't the USS Utah be on the list?[edit]

Unless I am having a brain fart wasn't the USS Utah at Pearl Harbor during the attack, sunk and is now a memorial? Sheppey Red (talk) 09:14, 10 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]