Ships
- USS San Francisco (CA-38) Captain, 13 November 1942 – 17 November 1942
Herbert Emery Schonland was born in Portland, Maine, on 7 September 1900. Maine appointed him to the United States Naval Academy, and he graduated in June 1925 as an ensign, a member of the Class of 1925. His first sea duty was in the battleship Utah. He later transferred to the destroyer Lawrence.
In June 1928 he was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) and afterward served in the submarine tenders Camden and Bushnell. From 1932 to 1934 he took instruction at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island. He then joined the light cruiser Milwaukee and, at the same time, served as torpedo repair officer for Cruiser Division Three in the Battle Force. In July 1935 he moved to Argonne. Promoted to lieutenant in May 1936, he returned to Newport in June 1937 as an instructor at the Naval Training Station.
In June 1939 he reported to the heavy cruiser San Francisco and stayed in her for more than four years. He was promoted to lieutenant commander in July 1941. Through the hard early months of the Guadalcanal campaign, San Francisco fought in the South Pacific. On the night of 12–13 November 1942 she flew the flag of Rear Admiral Daniel Judson Callaghan in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, off Savo Island, against a Japanese force that included battleships.
Enemy shells punched the cruiser open, and water poured into second-deck compartments through the holes. Schonland was her damage-control officer. He was a lieutenant commander on San Francisco on 13 November 1942. Captain Cassin Young was killed that night, and Schonland was the senior officer left. Rear Admiral Callaghan, whose flag was in the ship, was killed the same night. He was not her captain. Rear Admiral Norman Scott was also killed that night, in the cruiser Atlanta. San Francisco was not sunk.
Schonland had the ship from 13 November to 17 November 1942. He put the night into keeping her afloat. Bruce McCandless had the conn and took her out. McCandless was not her captain. Told that command had fallen to him, Schonland made sure the conning was already being handled well, directed McCandless to continue, and went back to the flooding decks. Waist-deep in water, with only hand lanterns for light, he kept the pumps and shoring going until the flooded compartments were cleared and the ship’s watertight strength was restored. San Francisco reached port under her own power.
Both men were awarded the Medal of Honor. Schonland’s was for the hours he spent holding the cruiser’s stability after the officers above him had been killed or wounded, at clear risk to his own life.
When San Francisco finished repairs and returned to combat in 1943, he was a commander and served as her executive officer. That fall he went to staff duty at the Naval Training School in Philadelphia. Early in 1944 he taught damage control at the Naval Training School in San Francisco, California. He was promoted to captain in August 1944, with the rank dated back to August 1943. He retired from active service at the beginning of 1947 and was advanced to rear admiral on the retired list in recognition of his combat record. Herbert Emery Schonland died on 13 November 1984. He and his wife, Claire, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.