13. USS Hobson represented the greatest loss of life aboard an American warship since World War II
Accidents during training exercises were a frequent cause of casualties during the Cold War. The expansion of submarine fleets by the Soviets and Americans mandated new developments in the area of anti-submarine warfare. The United States developed a type of task force which first appeared during World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic. Anti-submarine destroyers and other smaller ships accompanied an aircraft carrier to detect and ultimately destroy enemy submarines and to conduct mine-laying operations. Training such units required operations in close formation, often at night or during inclement weather, when visibility was limited. In April, 1952, USS Hobson, a converted World War II destroyer, was operating with the aircraft carrier USS Wasp and two other destroyers in the Atlantic, five hundred miles from the coast of Newfoundland. The carrier was preparing to conduct night flight operations to recover aircraft.
A communication mishap caused by the destroyers’ warning lights led Hobson to turn across the bows of the much larger carrier. The latter rammed Hobson, rolling it onto its port side, and cutting the smaller ship into two pieces. Both sank relatively quickly, and 61 of the crew managed to scramble to floating debris or rafts, from which they were rescued. 176 members of Hobson’s crew, including its captain, passed in the accident. It was the US Navy’s highest loss of life in a non-combat related incident since the unexplained loss of a collier during the First World War. An investigation by the Navy found the commanding officer of Hobson made “…a grave error in judgment”. Wasp was found not to have been responsible in any way for the grim accident and loss of life. It was simply a training accident, a common event during the Cold War.
