USS Tucker (DD-374)

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see USS Tucker.

Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia
, 2 March 1937
History
United States
NameTucker
NamesakeSamuel Tucker
Builder
Norfolk Navy Yard
Laid down15 August 1934
Launched26 February 1936
Commissioned23 July 1936
Stricken2 December 1944
FateStruck mine off Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, 4 August 1942
General characteristics (as built)
Class and typeMahan-class destroyer
Displacement
  • 1,500
    standard load
    )
  • 1,725 long tons (1,753 t) (
    deep load
    )
Length341 ft (103.9 m)
Beam35 ft 6 in (10.8 m)
Draft10 ft 7 in (3.2 m)
Installed power
Propulsion2
shafts 2 geared steam turbines
Speed37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph)
Range6,940 nmi (12,850 km; 7,990 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement158 officers and enlisted men
Sensors and
processing systems		1 ×
gun director
above bridge
Armament

USS Tucker (DD-374) was one of 18

38 caliber 5-inch (127 mm) guns
.

First assigned to the

South Pacific
.

Tucker steamed out of port on 1 August 1942, escorting a

minefield laid by the US Navy. Tucker struck at least one mine
that tore her almost in two, sinking her and killing three sailors; the rest of the crew survived.

Design

General characteristics

The

standard displacement was 1,500 long tons (1,524 t) larger, and they were equipped with a more efficient steam propulsion
system and designed to carry 12 torpedo tubes, an increase of four over the Farragut-class. [2]

Tucker displaced 1,500 long tons (1,524 t) at

deep load. The ship's overall length was 341 feet (103.9 m), her beam was 35 feet 6 inches (10.8 m), and her draft was 10 feet 7 inches (3.2 m). Her peace-time complement consisted of 158 officers and enlisted men.[3]

She had a

centerline and two in the side positions.[2]

Machinery

Tucker was fitted with four

kW) for a maximum speed of 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph). Tucker carried a maximum of 523 long tons (531 t) of fuel oil, with a trial range of 7,300 nautical miles (13,500 km; 8,400 mi) at 12 knots
(22 km/h; 14 mph). The ship's wartime ranges were 6,940 nautical miles (12,850 km; 7,990 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) and 4,360 nautical miles (8,070 km; 5,020 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). The ship's design incorporated a new generation of propulsion machinery. The boilers were capable of reaching 650–700 °F (340–370 °C), powering the high-pressure turbines with
double-reduction gears that enabled the turbines to run faster and more efficiently than in previous destroyer designs.[2]

Armament

Tucker's

38 caliber 5-inch (127 mm) guns, equipped with the MK 33 gun fire-control system.[4]
The ship's antiaircraft battery had four water-cooled
K-guns).[6] In early 1942, the Navy began to refit the Mahan-class destroyers with new antiaircraft armament, although most of the class was not refitted until sometime in 1944. (The source, Hodges and Friedman, do not indicate if Tucker was refitted). [7]

Construction and service history

Tucker was the second vessel to be named for Samuel Tucker, who had been an officer in the Continental Navy and the United States Navy.[8] Tucker's keel was laid down on 15 August 1934. She was launched on 26 February 1936 and christened by a third cousin of Tucker. The ship was commissioned in the United States Navy on 23 July.[9]

Naval warship rigged with sails
Tucker rigged with sails, June 1940

After her shakedown cruise, she joined destroyer forces attached to the United States Battle Fleet in San Diego, California. She operated with them along the West Coast and in the Hawaiian islands as part of Destroyer Squadron 3 of the Destroyer Division. In February 1939, she took part in

Fleet Problem XX, a naval exercise held in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean and observed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As tensions with Japan increased, the fleet was ordered to return to Hawaiian waters.[10]

In June 1940, Tucker steamed from Hawaii to a location east of

steerageway as she loitered on station several days.[11]

Tucker continued operating between Hawaii and the West Coast into February 1941. She then set course for New Zealand on a goodwill tour, arriving in Auckland on 17 March. Returning to Pearl Harbor, she took part in routine exercises at sea before returning to her homeport of San Diego on 19 September. After a short stay, Tucker steamed to Hawaii in November as part of Task Force 19, operating again in the Hawaiian Islands. Shortly afterward, she put into Pearl Harbor for an overhaul by a destroyer tender.[10]

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Tucker was one of five destroyers moored at berth X–9, East Loch, alongside the destroyer tender Whitney.[12] Even before Tucker's general quarters alarm could be sounded, one of her on-deck sailors began firing a 50-caliber machine gun at the first wave of Japanese aircraft. When the second wave attacked, every ship that could opened fire. Tucker's gunners scored hits on at least two aircraft: one crashed in a cane field, another in flames disappeared over a mountaintop. Still undergoing overhaul, much of Tucker’s machinery had been torn down for repairs. Despite the crew's efforts, she was unable to get underway until that evening.[13]

After her overhaul, Tucker patrolled off Pearl Harbor and spent several months escorting convoys between Hawaii and the West Coast. With new orders, she steamed to the South Pacific for convoy duty. Tucker then escorted the

Fremantle before steaming back to Sydney. Tucker and Wright returned to Suva, arriving on 3 June 1942. For the remainder of June and into the first week of July, Tucker operated out of Suva before relieving the cruiser Boise of convoy escort duties on 10 July. On 30 July, the ship arrived at Auckland and the following day started back for Suva.[10]

Fate

Naval ship struck by a mine and sinking
USS Tucker (D-374) sinking south of Espiritu Santo, 5 August 1942

On 1 August 1942 Tucker left Suva, escorting the cargo ship SS Nira Luckenbach to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.[10] On 4 August Tucker led the cargo ship into the harbor at Espiritu Santo, as she headed into the western entrance, she struck at least one mine. The explosion tore her hull nearly in two at the No. 1 stack, killing all three crew members on watch in the forward fire room. The rest of the ship's company survived. Nira Luckenbach and other vessels rescued sailors from their sinking ship. Tucker's

Battle of Guadalcanal.[14]

Three days after Tucker sank, the seagoing tugboat Navajo arrived on site with divers, salvaging her guns, turbines, anchors and chains. During the remainder of the war, the Navy used the wreckage site for diver training; they did not undertake further salvaging. Settling in just 60 feet (18 m) of water, the ship was easily accessible to private salvors, who harvested anything of value, ransacking and further scattering Tucker's remains. Sport divers also had a destructive effect on the site, which by 1997 resembled an "underwater junkyard".[16] Mike Gerken, an underwater photojournalist, dove the Tucker wreckage site several times; in 2013 he eulogized Tucker and other sunken ships:

To see a ship with a distinguished record as the Tucker in such a poor state gave me pause for thought. I pondered that wrecks, like the Tucker, will gradually disappear and to be saddened by this inevitable fact would be pointless. What is important is that the memory of these ships be kept alive by telling their stories.

— Mike Gerken, "The USS Tucker: A Prestigious Past with an Inglorious End", Wreck Diving Magazine[17]

Tucker and SS President Coolidge, a troopship, suffered similar fates less than three months apart; both were sunk in different locations of the same U.S. Navy minefield, and both later became diving sites.[17]

Honors

Tucker received one

battle star for her World War II service.[18]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Reilly 1983, p. 28.
  2. ^ a b c d Friedman 2004, p. 88.
  3. ^ Friedman 2004, pp. 465–466.
  4. ^ a b Friedman 2004, p. 465.
  5. ^ Hodges & Friedman 1979, p. 111.
  6. ^ Friedman 2004, p. 86.
  7. ^ Hodges & Friedman 1979, p. 145.
  8. ^ Parkin 1996, p. 67.
  9. ^ Parkin 1996, p. 68-69.
  10. ^ a b c d e NHHC.
  11. ^ Reilly 1983, p. 30.
  12. ^ Roscoe 1953, pp. 47–48.
  13. ^ Parkin 1996, p. 68.
  14. ^ a b Roscoe 1953, p. 165.
  15. ^ Rohwer 2005, p. 184.
  16. ^ Stone 1997, pp. 78–79.
  17. ^ a b Gerken 2013.
  18. ^ Parkin 1996, p. 69.

Bibliography

  • ISBN 978-1-55750-442-5
    .
  • Gerken, Mike (2013). "USS Tucker: A Prestigious Past with an Inglorious End". Wreck Diving Magazine. No. 31. Retrieved 27 October 2019 – via EvolutionUnderwater.com.
  • Hodges, Peter; Friedman, Norman (1979). Destroyer Weapons of World War 2. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.
    ISBN 0-87021-929-4
    .
  • NHHC. "Tucker". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  • Parkin, Robert Sinclair (1996). Blood on the Sea: American Destroyers Lost in World War II. New York, NY: Sarpedon.
    ISBN 1-885119-17-8
    .
  • Reilly, John (1983). United States Navy Destroyers of World War II. Poole, Dorset, England: Blandford Press.
    ISBN 0-7137-1026-8
    .
  • Roscoe, Theodore (1953). U.S. Destroyer Operations in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.
    ISBN 0-87021-726-7
    .
  • ISBN 1-59114-119-2
    .
  • Stone, Peter (1997). The Lady and the President: The Life and Loss of the S. S. President Coolidge. Yarram, Australia: Oceans Enterprises.
    ISBN 978-0-95866572-8
    .
  • This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Tucker_(DD-374)&oldid=1092121585"