On 30 October 1942 the USS Enterprise (CV-6) pulled into Noumea damaged from the Battle of Santa Cruz. She was the only air craft carrier remaining west of Pearl Harbor, but had a bomb go through the flight deck at the bow. Two of enterprise's aircraft elevators were out of commission as well as a torpedo elevator. The flight deck arrestor cables were severed and their gear damaged. One near miss was midships below the waterline while another was adjacent the elevator hit. B Co. from CB 3 put 75 men aboard her to assist effect emergency repairs en route to the first naval Battle of the Solomons. Underway to engage the enemy, the Seabees focused on the repairs even into the battle. They had worked round-the-clock under the Enterprise's damage control officer along with 40 men off the repair ship USS Vestal. He wrote that on 11 November: ""She made the open sea with her decks... shaking and echoing to air hammers, with welders' arcs sparking... and with her forward elevator still jammed... since the bomb...broke it in half.""