U.S.S. Shaw (1916)

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U.S.S. Shaw (1916)
Hull Number: DD-68
Builder: Mare Island[1]
Laid down: 7 Feb, 1916[2]
Launched: 9 Dec, 1916[3]
Commissioned: 9 Apr, 1917[4]
Decommissioned: 21 Jun, 1922[5]
Stricken: 5 Jul, 1934[6]
Sold:
U.S.S. Shaw was one of six Sampson class destroyers completed for the U.S. Navy.

Service

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

Shaw was commissioned on 9 April, 1917 with Lieutenant Commander Milton S. Davis in command. Shaw sailed from Mare Island on 25 May and arrived at New York on 10 June, ready for distant service.

She sailed a week later as one of the escort of Group 4 of the Expeditionary Force from the United States to France. On 26 June, she fueled at sea from a tanker, and the convoy arrived at Quiberon Bay, France, on 1 July. On the 4th, she sailed from St. Nazaire and arrived at Cobh, Ireland, the next day. On 10 July, she began patrol and convoy escort duty based on Cobh, convoying eastbound and westbound ships through the submarine danger zone around Great Britain and Ireland, for the most part without incident. On 1 July 1918, she received an S.O.S. from the torpedoed American transport Covington and rushed to her aid. On arrival, she found that Covington '​s survivors had been removed and the ship had been taken under tow, though the crippled transport would founder later in the day.

On 25 September, a ship in Shaw '​s convoy was attacked by a submarine but not damaged.

On 9 October 1918, while escorting R.M.S. Aquitania, Shaw '​s rudder jammed just as she was completing the right leg of a zigzag, leaving her headed directly towards the transport. A moment later, Aquitania struck Shaw, cutting off 90 feet of the destroyer's bow, mangling her bridge and setting her on fire. Shaw '​s crew brought her damage under control, and a skeleton crew of twenty-one men took the wreck forty miles into port under her own power. Twelve men died in the accident.

Shaw remained under repair in Portsmouth until 29 May, 1919 when she sailed for the United States. She arrived at New York on 17 June 1919 and moved to the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 2 October where she joined the reserve destroyer group. She was decommissioned on 21 June 1922.

Captains

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Friedman. U.S. Destroyers. p. 430.
  2. Friedman. U.S. Destroyers. p. 430.
  3. Friedman. U.S. Destroyers. p. 430.
  4. Friedman. U.S. Destroyers. p. 430.
  5. Friedman. U.S. Destroyers. p. 430.
  6. Friedman. U.S. Destroyers. p. 430.
  7. Register of Officers, 1919. pp. 30-31.

Bibliography


Sampson Class Destroyer
  Sampson Rowan Davis  
  Allen Wilkes Shaw  
<– Tucker Class Destroyers (US) Caldwell Class –>