USS Trumpeter (DE-180)

History
United States
Name	USS Trumpeter
Namesake	George Nelson Trumpeter
Builder	Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newark, New Jersey
Laid down	7 June 1943
Launched	19 September 1943
Commissioned	16 October 1943
Decommissioned	5 December 1947
Stricken	1 August 1973
Fate	Sold for scrapping 18 June 1974
General characteristics
Class and type	Cannon-class destroyer escort
Displacement	1,240 long tons (1,260 t) standard; 1,620 long tons (1,646 t) full;
Length	306 ft (93 m) o/a; 300 ft (91 m) w/l;
Beam	36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
Draft	11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)
Propulsion	4 × GM Mod. 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6,000 shp (4,474 kW), 2 screws
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range	10,800 nmi (20,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	15 officers and 201 enlisted
Armament	3 × single Mk.22 3"/50 caliber guns; 1 × twin 40 mm Mk.1 AA gun; 8 × 20 mm Mk.4 AA guns; 3 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes; 1 × Hedgehog Mk.10 anti-submarine mortar (144 rounds); 8 × Mk.6 depth charge projectors; 2 × Mk.9 depth charge tracks;

USS Trumpeter (DE-180) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1943 to 1947. She was sold for scrap in 1974.

History

She was named in honor of Navy

Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock

Co.; launched on 19 September 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Hazel Vivian Trumpeter, mother of Lt. Trumpeter; and commissioned on 16 October 1943.

Battle of the Atlantic

While Trumpeter was completing outfitting at

deperming and finished the month with underway trials in New York Harbor

.

Early in November, Trumpeter departed New York, setting her course for

Antisubmarine tactics, convoy escort technique, gunnery, night illumination, cruising and screening exercises occupied her days. Each evening, she returned to Bermuda to anchor in Great Sound

. Antisubmarine runs, practice fueling at sea, towing, mail-passing and emergency steering drills readied the new destroyer escort and her crew for the rigors of wartime Atlantic operations.

At last, on 2 December, Trumpeter got underway for New York where she underwent alterations and voyage repairs. On 16 December, she departed New York and set her course northeast. The same day, she moored at

destroyer escorts, bound for Brazil

.

Late in the morning on the first day of March, she arrived at

Bahia, Brazil, on the 17th for 10 days availability and routine upkeep. On the 28th, she got underway with Straub (DE-181) and Gustafson (DE-182); then, on the 31st, she rendezvoused with Solomons (CVE-67)

and reported to Commander, Task Group (CTG) 41.6 for her first antisubmarine patrol.

For the next five months, Trumpeter conducted patrols out of Brazilian ports with antisubmarine task groups. The escort carrier

submarines in the Atlantic shipping lanes. Each group, composed of one escort carrier and its screen of destroyer escorts or old destroyers, aggressively sought out and destroyed enemy submarines in Atlantic waters with notable success. When Trumpeter began patrols in March 1944, however, German submarine activity was not so extensive as it had been earlier in the war; and many of her patrols were uneventful. In June, while Trumpeter was patrolling in mid-Atlantic with Solomons, a plane from the carrier detected the presence of a German submarine. Planes dispatched from Solomons eventually sank the submarine. While Trumpeter remained behind to screen the carrier, Straub and Herzog (DE-178) set out for the area of the sinking, some 40 miles away, to rescue survivors. The two DE's picked 23 Germans from the waters, but the flier, whose bold low altitude bombing run had finished off the U-boat

, was still missing when the search was ended.

Trumpeter's routine of patrol interspersed with periods of repair and upkeep was varied in August with four days of antisubmarine exercises and night battle practice out of Recife. She departed on 1 September and, on the 3rd, joined Memphis (CL-13) and Cannon (DE-99) en route to Rio de Janeiro. During two weeks in that port, she underwent availability and prepared for her first Atlantic crossing. Finally, on 22 September 1944, she departed Brazilian waters escorting transports General M. C. Meigs (AP-116) and General W. A. Mann (AP-112) carrying troops of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force bound for the European theater of war.

On 4 October, she anchored in

Montevideo, Uruguay

.

Trumpeter departed

Horta, she steamed on, arrived at Boston

, Massachusetts, on 19 June, and began a prolonged period of availability.