USS Miami (CL-89)
History of the USS Miami Cruiser
The USS Miami (CL-89) was ordered for the U.S. Navy before the United States entered World War II. Her keel was laid down by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 2, 1941. She was launched on December 8, 1942 and commissioned on December 28, 1943 under the command of Captain John G. Crawford.
USS Miami arrived at Pearl Harbor on May 6, 1944. She supported the Fast Carrier Task Force strikes on Saipan, Tinian, Rota, Guam, Pagan, and the Bonin Islands in June. In July, she screened the carriers that provided close air support to invasion forces in the Mariana Islands.
In August, the USS Miami helped support the raids on Iwo Jima and Haha Jima. From there, she proceeded to Eniwetok for refitting and upkeep. She then supported the carrier strikes on Peleliu and Angaur on September 7. Five days later, the cruiser began bombarding enemy shore installations in the Philippines. Her scout planes managed to rescue downed American aviators four times during these operations. She supported the carrier strikes on Palau and the Philippines until heading to Saipan for replenishment on September 29.
From October 10 until October 14, USS Miami supported the carrier strikes against Okinawa. On the night of October 12, her task group came under aerial attack. The cruiser splashed their first Japanese plane and shared the kill on another.
The USS Miami next became involved in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, protecting the USS Intrepid, USS Hancock, USS Bunker Hill, USS Cabot, and USS Independence. Her task group sank the Japanese battleship Musashi and damaged the cruiser Myoko before moving north to sink four enemy carriers and their supporting ships. The cruiser helped to sink the destroyer Nowaki off the entrance to San Bernardino Strait.
After Leyte Gulf, USS Miami supported the carrier strikes on the Philippines. She weathered a typhoon on December 18 that carried away one of her planes and damaged her hull. The cruiser’s damage was not extensive, though, and she supported air strikes on Formosa, Luzon, French Indochina, the South China Coast, Hainan, and Hong Kong in January 1945.
On January 20, the USS Miami shot down a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M aircraft. She moved on to support operations in the Japanese home islands in February before operating off Okinawa in March. On May 10, the cruiser departed Ulithi and got underway for San Francisco, California via Pearl Harbor, where she underwent an overhaul that kept her out of action for the remainder of World War II.
USS Miami proceeded to Pearl Harbor on August 25 and operated in the Ryukyu Islands during the next two months, accepting the surrender of the small islands there. She then visited Yokosuka before sailing to Truk to survey the damage caused by the bombing of the naval base there. The cruiser returned home to California on December 10, serving as a Naval Reserve Training Ship for the next year and a half.
The USS Miami was decommissioned on June 30, 1947. She was struck from the Naval Register on September 1, 1961 and sold for scrap on July 26, 1962. The cruiser earned six battle stars for her service in World War II.
The use of asbestos was common in shipbuilding components for much of the 20th Century because of its resistance to heat, fire, water and corrosion. Because of their asbestos exposure onboard ship and in the shipyards, seaman, shipyard workers and longshoreman are at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma.
Sources include:
Asbestos and Ship-Building: Fatal Consequences, by John Hedley-Whyte and Debra R Milamed
