The picture (above left) of the collision damage to RSE was taken out of the local Long Beach newspaper - - date of collision was 11 August 1960. The aircraft carrier was refueling us about 200 miles North of San Francisco and suddenly turned away without warning - - we quickly followed around and she then came back and placed us inside her bow wave - - only thing we could do was back full. Unfortunately, the carrier's elevator was down aft and that's what scraped us from the main deck aft up to the wardroom galley forward. Left the triple torpedo tubes on the elevator! Was the Chief Engineer at this time and had my hands full with processing job orders for repair as we limped homeward on one screw!

Regards,

Gene

DESTROYER, CARRIER IN COLLISION OFF SAN FRANCISCO


The aircraft carrier USS BENNINGTON and the destroyer USS EDWARDS collided Wednesday during refueling operations 175 miles off San Francisco, the Navy said today. There were no injuries.

Both vessels were damaged; the carrier slightly, the destroyer extensively, the Navy said.

The 40,000-ton BENNINGTON continued on with training operations. The USS EDWARDS was ordered to Long Beach, under her own power, for repairs.

The Navy said Wednesday's collision occurred when the USS EDWARDS "apparently lost steering control" as it refueled with the carrier. Its super structure smashed into the USS BENNINGTON's Number 3 elevator. The EDWARD's super structure was badly damaged and the flattop's elevator - for raising planes to the flight deck - was put out of commission.

NOTE: This article retyped (by Joseph Pires) just as it appeared on 11 August 1960 and found on the USS Bennington Web site at: HTTP://uss-bennington.org .  You can find other interesting comments on the collision on that Web site.