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 and just aft of the forward elevator. One near miss was midships below the waterline while another was adjacent the elevator hit. B Co. from CB 3 put a 75-man aboard her to assist effect emergency repairs en route to her next engagement in the Solomons. Underway with the ship ordered 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. 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.""