the shore batteries. Two enemy ships were sunk in the harbor, and one other was damaged and left burning. The American warship also set numerous barges afire in Steffen Strait and engaged Japanese shore batteries. Woodworth arrived at Port Purvis, Florida Island, on 26 February. From 1 through 21 March, Woodworth conducted training exercises, escort missions, antisubmarine searches, and barge-hunting operations throughout the Solomon Islands. She fired at enemy positions and encountered no opposition. Woodworth departed Port Purvis with Buchanan on 22 March, bound for Pearl Harbor. She joined TG 35.6 with a merchant convoy of five ships off Guadalcanal and proceeded to Hawaii with it. On 9 April, Woodworth cleared Pearl Harbor and steamed to San Francisco. She was drydocked at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 15 April 1944. The destroyer underwent an overhaul and refresher training exercises until 21 July when she joined TG 12.1 and steamed to Hawaii on a presidential cruise with the destroyers , , , and the cruiser . Baltimore was carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Pearl Harbor to discuss future strategy in the Pacific with Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur. Following the conference, the task force took the President north to Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. President Roosevelt left Baltimore at Kodiak, Alaska on 8 August, and proceeded to Bremerton, Washington, on Cummings. Woodworth arrived at San Francisco on 14 August 1944, but sailed the following day for Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on 20 August for more than one month of training exercises. On 30 September, she entered Ulithi Atoll for antisubmarine patrol; and, on 7 October, she joined TG 38.1. In late 1944, while refueling at sea from the carrier , Woodworth sustained numerous superficial damages as a result of a mid-refueling collision. First Class Quartermaster L. G. Chacona, while manning the wheel during the exercise, struggled against a port-ward drift until the ship veered off course enough to cause the hawser line, whose usage was discontinued as a result of the accident, connecting the two bows to snap. Soon after the fuel lines also snapped causing a fuel spill over the decks. As the boats collided, Woodworth sustained heavy damage along the port side bridge. Salamaua sustained only a hole from puncture of Woodworths port anchor, resulting in Salamaua being nicknamed "The Can-Opener". Woodworth returned to the port of Salerno for repairs before returning to duty.