USS Stringham (DD-83)

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For other ships with the same name, see USS Stringham.
USS Stringham at anchor
History
United States
NameStringham
Namesake
Silas Horton Stringham
BuilderFore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts
Laid down19 September 1917
Launched30 March 1918
Commissioned2 July 1918
Decommissioned2 June 1922
IdentificationDD-83
Recommissioned11 December 1940
Decommissioned9 November 1945
Reclassified
  • 2 August 1940 as APD-6
  • 25 June 1945 as DD-83
Stricken5 December 1945
FateScrapped, March 1946
General characteristics
Class and typeWickes-class destroyer
Displacement1,284 long tons (1,305 t)
Length314 ft 4+1⁄2 in (95.8 m)
Beam30 ft 11+1⁄4 in (9.4 m)
Draft9 ft 2 in (2.8 m)
Speed35 knots (65 km/h)
Complement103 officers and enlisted
Armament

USS Stringham (DD–83) was a

Silas Horton Stringham
.

Stringham was

Fore River Shipbuilding Company. The ship was launched on 30 March 1918, sponsored by Mrs. Edward B. Hill. The destroyer was commissioned
on 2 July 1918.

Service history

World War I

Following commissioning, Stringham was assigned to

Philadelphia Navy Yard
.

World War II

She remained inactive until 1940, when she was apparently moved to the

Norfolk Navy Yard for conversion to a high-speed transport
(APD). On 2 August 1940, Stringham was redesignated APD-6.

1940-1942

On 11 December 1940, she was recommissioned at Norfolk, whence she operated until mid-1942. Her duties consisted primarily of escorting coastal convoys from point to point along the eastern seaboard and to various bases in the Caribbean Sea. On 18 April 1942, Stringham attacked an enemy submarine, but could not confirm a kill, even though heavy black oil surfaced soon after her attack. On the following day, she put into Norfolk and participated in amphibious exercises in the Chesapeake Bay through the first week in July.

On 6 July, she got underway from Norfolk in company with a convoy bound for the Panama Canal. She transited the canal on 13 July, reported to the Commander, Southeastern Pacific, and continued west. After stops in the Society and Fiji Islands, she reached Espiritu Santo, in the New Hebrides, on 14 August. Two days later, she put to sea on the first of many resupply voyages to help bolster the marines defending the beachhead on Guadalcanal.

The

Guadalcanal campaign was unique among the amphibious operations conducted in the Pacific during World War II. Neither the United States nor Japan
enjoyed the overwhelming naval superiority which in almost every other case ensured victory for the greater force. Relative equality made the naval forces of each side a constant threat to the supply lines of the other. Consequently, both sides relied upon the high-speed transport, converted destroyers like Stringham, which were well armed for transports and fast enough to evade more powerfully armed warships. While the contribution of the larger elements of the American fleet cannot be overlooked, the struggle for Guadalcanal was to a great extent the battle of the high-speed transport. Stringham and similar high speed transports succeeded where their Japanese counterparts failed. They kept the marines supplied.

On 23 August, during Stringham's second run to Guadalcanal, a torpedo passed her close astern; and she immediately charged to the attack. She dropped 11 depth charges; forced the submarine to broach; and then lost contact. Although her crew thought at the time they had sunk the submarine, subsequent checking failed to verify their victory. Not long after her scrape with the submarine, Stringham was ordered out to join the group of ships attempting to tow the destroyer Blue, torpedoed the previous evening, into Tulagi. The imminence of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, however, forced that weak formation to abandon Blue and seek shelter. Accordingly, Blue sank at 2223 on 23 August. Stringham resumed her supply runs in the Solomons until 5 October, when she got underway from New Caledonia to return to the California coast.

1943

After six weeks in the

starboard propeller. After emergency repairs at Tulagi
, she was routed back to Mare Island, where she arrived on 16 April.

Over the next six months, Stringham advanced up the Solomons staircase with the American forces. In mid-August, she participated in the landings at Vella Lavella in the central Solomons. That operation cut the Japanese supply lines to Kolombangara and delivered vital air bases to the Americans. On 27 October, she and six other APDs, along with various smaller ships, put a force of New Zealanders ashore at Mono and Stirling islands in the Treasury Islands sub-group. November found her supporting the assault on Bougainville at Empress Augusta Bay.

On the day after Christmas, Stringham joined the American forces which outflanked the

Admiralties to isolate Kavieng and Rabaul
. Stringham participated in one operation in each direction.

1944

On 2 January 1944, she supported the forces which landed at

Green Islands, the northernmost subgroup of the Solomons, located between Buka and New Ireland
.

During the spring of 1944, American military thinking focused increasingly upon the Central Pacific invasion route to Japan. Accordingly, Stringham returned to

Eniwetok Atoll
.

Stringham, was at

Kossol Passage, and then returned to work with the UDT teams until 27 September, when she headed for Manus. There she was moored alongside Clemson
. On the night of 3 October, a fire broke out on Clemson and swept across Stringham amidships and aft, igniting the UDT teams' rubber boats and bags of explosives. Stringham drifted from her moorings after the lines were cut, and her crew finally got the fire under control.

1945

Stringham returned to the United States for

Okinawa on 26 March. The high-speed transport arrived off Okinawa on 2 April, the day following the initial assault, and screened the transport area until 7 April, when she headed for Guam. During that time, Stringham took two kamikazes under fire, one on 3 April and one on 6 April. The former succeeded in crashing LST-599
while the latter gave up his plunge in the face of Stringham's heavy antiaircraft fire, dove on a destroyer, but missed both American ships.

Stringham screened another convoy from Guam to the

Ryukyus, reaching Okinawa on 22 April. She remained in the vicinity for five relatively uneventful days; then headed back to Guam. On this voyage, she rendered assistance to the hospital ship, Comfort, which had been crashed by a Japanese kamikaze. Comfort was able to resume course without assistance, but Stringham shepherded her until relieved by Wickes
.

While at Guam, Stringham was rammed by

Philadelphia. In September, she sailed from San Diego, transited the Panama Canal, and proceeded to Philadelphia, where she reported for duty to the Commandant, 4th Naval District, on 26 September. She was decommissioned on 9 November 1945, and her name was struck from the Navy list on 5 December 1945. Stringham was scrapped
at Philadelphia in March 1946.

Awards

References

  1. ISBN 1-881652-17-3
    .

External links

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