USS Aulick (DD-569)

USS Aulick off Mare Island on 24 February 1945,
History
United States
Name	USS Aulick
Namesake	John H. Aulick
Builder	Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas
Laid down	14 May 1941
Launched	2 March 1942
Sponsored by	Mrs. Thaddeus A. Thomson
Commissioned	27 October 1942
Decommissioned	18 April 1946
Stricken	1 September 1975
Identification	DD-569
Fate	Transferred to Hellenic Navy, 21 August 1959
Greece
Name	Sfendoni
Acquired	21 August 1959
Stricken	1991
Identification	D85
Fate	Scrapped, 1997
General characteristics
Class and type	Fletcher-class destroyer
Displacement	2,050 tons
Length	376 ft 6 in (114.76 m)
Beam	39 ft 8 in (12.09 m)
Draft	17 ft 9 in (5.41 m)
Propulsion	60,000 shp (45,000 kW); 2 propellers
Speed	35 kn (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	329
Armament	5 x 5-inch 38 caliber guns 4 × 40 mm AA guns, 4 × 20 mm AA guns, 10 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, 6 × depth charge projectors, 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Aulick (DD-569) was an American Fletcher-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Commodore John H. Aulick (1787–1873).

Construction and commissioning

Aulick was

Following her commissioning, the destroyer conducted shakedown training between the Gulf of Mexico and Casco Bay Maine. On 14 December 1942 at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay outside of Hampton Roads, VA, near the Thimble Shoals Lighthouse, she hit and sank the sloop Narada (known as the USCGR-2012) on loan to the US Coast Guard for antisubmarine duty. There was no loss of life. Her owner L. Corrin Strong was notified and compensated $6,249.80. She later departed Philadelphia on 23 January 1943, bound for the South Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal and paused at Bora Bora, Society Islands, before making Nouméa, New Caledonia, on 12 February. After a week of antisubmarine patrol off New Caledonia, Aulick joined Task Force 64 (TF 64) in the Coral Sea and stood by to support an American force landing on the Russell Islands.

When TF 64 returned to Nouméa on 25 February, Aulick was detached. She stood out for Espiritu Santo on 1 March as an escort for the aircraft transport Athene. From there, the destroyer steamed to Efate Island, New Hebrides, but on 9 March, she was ordered back to Nouméa. At 0411 on the 10th, Aulick struck a coral reef off the southern tip of New Caledonia while making 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) and suffered extensive damage to her hull, propellers, and engines.

After being briefly drydocked at Nouméa, the ship was taken in tow bound for

1944

The destroyer left

The warship was relieved on 18 May and reported to the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard, San Francisco, for repairs. At the end of this work, she sailed once again for Pearl Harbor and arrived there on 27 June. After a series of training exercises, Aulick got underway on 9 July in the screen of 12 transports bound for the invasion of Guam. They arrived off that island on 22 July, and the destroyer remained in the area, patrolling and screening units of the 5th Fleet, until 6 August.

After a resupply stop at

On 30 September, the ship headed for

Reports were received that a large Japanese force was approaching from the north. Aulick and five other destroyers took station near the south coast of Homonhon Island awaiting an attack which never materialized. On 29 October, Aulick sailed in company with TG 77.2 for Seeadler Harbor. The destroyer sortied on 17 November to meet the battleship West Virginia in Vitiaz Strait and escort her back to Seeadler. After escorting the battleship on to Ulithi, Aulick sailed back to Leyte on 22 November.

Arriving in Leyte Gulf on 25 November, Aulick once again joined TG 77.2. On 29 November, while on antisubmarine patrol in the east entrance to Leyte Gulf, Aulick was attacked at 1750 by six Japanese planes. One peeled off and dived toward the destroyer, dropped a bomb close aboard, then exploded on hitting the water approximately 20 yd (18 m) off the destroyer's port

Aulick was transferred, on loan, to the government of Greece on 21 August 1959. She served in the Hellenic Navy as Sfendoni (D85) ("Slingshot").

The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 September 1975, and she was sold to Greece in April 1977.

Sfendoni was stricken from the Greek Navy in 1991. She was scrapped in 1997 at Aliağa, Turkey.

Legacy

At the site were USS Aulick was built is a historical marker that reads:^[1]

• • On September 9, 1940, a federal contract worth $82 million was issued to the Consolidated Steel Company to construct 12 Fletcher class naval destroyers here in Orange, Texas. This and other contracts coupled with the subsequent building of major shipyard facilities along the city's riverfront lifted the city out of a prolonged and deep economic decline which began in the early 1930s with the closing of area sawmills. The community celebrated the laying of the keels of the U. S. S. Aulick and U. S. S. Charles Ausburne on May 14, 1941. The Aulick became the first naval destroyer to be built in Texas and on Texas Independence Day, March 2, 1942, it was christened and launched amid a crowd of 6,000 people. The Aulick represented the second U. S. Naval warship to be named after War of 1812 Navy veteran John H. Aulick (1787-1861). By 1946 all 12 destroyers and over four hundred other ships had been completed here at a cost of over $876 million. Orange's well-developed shipyards encouraged major companies to build plants along the riverfront. Several petrochemical and industrial Consolidated, Levingston, and Weaver converted to peacetime activities.

Awards

Aulick earned five

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be found here and here.
• navsource.org: USS Aulick