USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58). USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) is one of the final ships in the United States Navy's  of guided missile frigates (FFG). Commissioned in 1986, the ship was severely damaged by an Iranian mine in 1988, leading U.S. forces to respond with Operation Praying Mantis. Repaired and returned to duty, the ship served until decommissioned in 2015.

Commissioning and namesake
The frigate was named for Samuel B. Roberts, a Navy coxswain who was killed while evacuating the U.S. Marines during the battle of Guadalcanal in 1942. Roberts was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

Samuel B. Roberts was the third U.S. ship to bear the coxswain's name, after , a , commissioned in 1944 and sunk in the Battle off Samar later that year; and , a , commissioned in 1946 and struck in 1970.

Samuel B. Roberts was launched in December 1984 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine and sponsored by the wife of Jack Yusen, a member of DE-413's crew. The frigate was put in commission in April 1986 under the command of Commander Paul X. Rinn.

1988 deployment and mine strike
Samuel B. Roberts deployed from her homeport in Newport, Rhode Island, in January 1988, heading for the Persian Gulf to participate in Operation Earnest Will, the escort of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran–Iraq War. Samuel B. Roberts had arrived in the Persian Gulf and was heading for a refueling rendezvous with USS San Jose on 14 April when the ship struck an Iranian mine in the central Persian Gulf, an area she had safely transited a few days earlier. The mine blew a  hole in the hull, flooded the engine room, and knocked the two gas turbines from their mounts. The blast also broke the keel of the ship; such structural damage is almost always fatal to a vessel. The crew fought fire and flooding for five hours and saved the ship. Among other steps, sailors cinched cables on the cracked superstructure in an effort to stabilize it. She used her auxiliary thrusters to get out of the minefield at . San Jose's helicopters provided firefighting and engineering supplies to augment the crew's efforts. According to How We Fight, by the US Naval War College, the ship never lost combat capability with her radars and Mark 13 missile launcher. However, according to No Higher Honor by Bradley Peniston, the ship lost power for at least five minutes. After power was lost, the radars were disconnected to allow restoration of the power grid. The ship lost track of an Sa'am frigate and an Iranian P-3 that it had been monitoring. Ten sailors were medevaced by HC-5 CH-46s embarked on San Jose for injuries sustained in the blast; six returned to Samuel B. Roberts in a day or so. Four burn victims were sent for treatment to a military hospital in Germany, partly through the assistance of the 2nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, USAF. Eventually they were moved to medical facilities in the United States.

When U.S. divers recovered several unexploded mines, they found that their serial numbers fitted into the sequence on mines seized the previous September aboard an Iranian mine-layer named . Four days later, U.S. forces retaliated against Iran in Operation Praying Mantis, a one-day campaign that was the largest American surface engagement since World War II. U.S. ships, aircraft, and troops destroyed two Iranian oil platforms allegedly used to control Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf, sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Sahand (1969), damaged another, and sank at least three armed high-speed boats. The U.S. lost one Marine helicopter and its crew of two airmen in what appeared to be a night maneuver accident rather than a result of hostile operations.

Repairs
On 27 June 1988, Samuel B. Roberts was loaded onto , a semi-submersible heavy lift ship owned by Dutch shipping firm Wijsmuller Transport and carried back to Newport for $1.3 million. The frigate arrived at BIW's Portland, Maine, yard on 6 October 1988 for repairs. The repair job was unique: the entire engine room was cut out of the hull, and a 315-ton replacement module was jacked up and welded into place. She undocked 1 April 1989 for sea trials.

The repairs were completed three weeks ahead of schedule at a cost of $89.5 million, $3.5 million less than expected. By comparison, , which was damaged by a moored mine during the 1991 Gulf War, was repaired for $24 million; however, the cruiser was not directly struck by the mine and her displacement is nearly twice that of Samuel B. Roberts. The mine that nearly sank Samuel B. Roberts had an estimated cost of $1,500.

After 13 months of repairs, Samuel B. Roberts was returned to service in a 16 October 1989 ceremony.

After repair
Samuel B. Roberts made her second deployment in 1990 for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. The frigate operated as part of the Red Sea Maritime Interception Force, an international force of ships that enforced U.N. sanctions against Iraq. The frigate's sailors boarded more than 100 merchant ships in efforts to prevent cargo shipments to or from Iraq. On 28 March 1991, she returned to Newport.

"Sammy B", as the ship is sometimes called, was later homeported in Mayport, Florida.

On 30 August 1991, Joseph A. Sestak took command of Samuel B. Roberts, which was named the Atlantic Fleet's best surface combatant in the 1993 Battenberg Cup competition.

Samuel B. Roberts was decommissioned at Mayport on 22 May 2015, then towed to the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.

In late 2022, the ship was towed from Philadelphia to EMR International Shipbreaking Limited in Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping.

Gallery

References

Annati, Massimo Al diavolo le mine RID magazine, Coop. Riviera Ligure, Italy, n. 6/2005

Further reading

External links

 USS Samuel B. Roberts official site
 
 Samuel B. Roberts narrative and timeline
 Photos of Samuel B. Roberts during February 1986 sea trials
 Photos of Samuel B. Roberts being commissioned in April 1986
 Photos of Samuel B. Roberts being hauled from the Persian Gulf to Newport, R.I. aboard Mighty Servant 2 in 1988
 MaritimeQuest USS Samuel B. Roberts FFG-58 pages

1984 ships
Maritime incidents in 1988
Gulf War ships of the United States
United States Navy in the 20th century
Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates of the United States Navy
Ships built in Bath, Maine
Cold War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States