Initial impressions of the damage to USS Cassin were that she was a total loss, with salvage only necessary to clear Pearl Harbor's Drydock Number One, where she lay alongside the equally wrecked USS Downes (DD-375). However, closer examination showed that her main battery, hull fittings and machinery were in reasonably good condition. Accordingly, efforts soon began to remove guns and other topside equipment from the capsized ship, patch up her hull enough to allow it to float and turn her upright. Salvage work proceeded through January 1942 and into February as the drydock was periodically flooded to bring in or remove other damaged ships. Cassin was righted on 5 February and floated out of dock on the 18th. Her hull, wrecked beyond repair, was scrapped by October 1942, and the still-usable equipment was sent to the Mare Island Navy Yard for installation in a new hull.