A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History
USS SCHENCK DD-159
The Tin Can Sailor, April 2004
The USS SCHENCK (DD‑159) was commissioned on 30 October 1919 and began her career as part of the Atlantic Fleet operating between New York and the Chesapeake Bay. From July to September 1920 she patrolled off the east coast of Mexico and, in early 1921, participated in fleet exercises in the Caribbean. Preparations for her decommissioning began late in 1921 and she joined the mothball fleet at Philadelphia on 9 June 1922.
Recommissioned on 1 May 1930, the SCHENCK returned to active duty that summer as a reserve training ship. In 1931 and early 1932 she participated in fleet exercises in the Caribbean and off Hawaii. Japanese military action in Manchuria and Shanghai, China, increased tension in the Far East and kept the SCHENCK in the Pacific with the scouting fleet until June 1932.
The SCHENCK returned to the Pacific again in February 1933 for fleet exercises and remained there until April 1934 when she re-entered the Caribbean for more fleet exercises. Following routine operations at Norfolk, she trained naval reservists and Naval Academy midshipmen in cruises along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from May 1935 until the outbreak of war in Europe.
On 9 September 1939, the SCHENCK began Neutrality Patrol duty off the East Coast, and, after an overhaul, patrolled out of Key West. During the summer of 1940, she made two midshipman cruises from Annapolis and then steamed south to the Caribbean for patrol duty. Patrols in the autumn of 1940, the early winter, and mid-summer of 1941 were separated by periods of training and repairs. On 15 September 1941, the SCHENCK arrived at Argentia, Newfoundland, for duty escorting convoys carrying vital war materiel to England. She left Argentia with her first convoy on 29 September, and by the time the United States had entered World War II, the destroyer had escorted two convoys to their guarded rendezvous with British escorts off Iceland and escorted a ship back to Argentia.
She remained on the convoy route between Argentia and Iceland, fighting heavy weather and German submarines. She was based in Iceland from 19 February to 9 May 1942. In August 1942, the SCHENCK began escorting convoys in and out of Icelandic ports. Between 6 and 8 February 1943, the aged destroyer suffered minor damage as she steamed through rough weather, and on 13 March 1943, she was moored in an Icelandic port when gale force winds drove her into the SS EXTERMINATOR. The damage was extensive and sent the SCHENCK to Boston for repairs. Reassigned to convoy escort duties in the South Atlantic on 28 April 1943, she guarded convoys between East Coast ports, the Caribbean, and North Africa. She returned to the Chesapeake Bay with a convoy on 26 October 1943, and, after overhaul and training, joined a hunter‑killer group built around escort carrier Card (CVE‑11). The group conducted patrols against enemy submarines near the Azores beginning on 24 November 1943.
On the night of 23-24 December 1943, she was with Task Group 21.14 screening the CARD and scouring the North Atlantic for a major wolfpack of some thirty U-boats. At 0216 on 24 December, the SCHENCK was screening off the CARD’s port bow when her radar led her to a submarine running on the surface. She rapidly closed the distance, catching up with the U-boat as it started to dive. The U-645, as the sub was later identified, offered a stern view to the pursuing destroyer, which quickly maneuvered to avoid a possible torpedo and began a sonar search for the submerged boat. The SCHENCK’s sonar located the submarine at 800 yards, and at 0250 the destroyer began releasing her depth charges. Destroyer and submarine continued their game of cat and mouse until 0327 when the SCHENCK dropped a second pattern of depth charges. Two minutes later an explosion from the depths of the sea rocked the destroyer, and a widening oil slick on the water marked the spot of the U-645’s last resting place.
While the SCHENCK was dispatching the U-645, prowling subs had struck, torpedoeing the LEARY (DD-158). Two, and possibly three, torpedoes ruptured the destroyer’s hull. Her captain gave the order to abandon ship, but had no time to escape himself before his ship went down. The SCHENCK took up the search for survivors from the LEARY, which left only her squadron mate, the DECATUR (DD-341), to screen the CARD, which began a zigzag course to offer an illusive target in the U-boat infested waters. The SCHENCK continued her ASW operations and was later commended by the task group commander for her role in preventing a wolf pack attack on the CARD; for her continued aggressive action after the sinking of the LEARY, despite having only fourteen depth charges left; and for her skillful rescue of the LEARY’s survivors.
In February and March 1944, the SCHENCK made one more round‑trip convoy voyage from the East Coast to Casablanca; and, between 17 April and 10 June, she escorted ANTAEUS (AG‑67) on troop‑carrying voyages along the East Coast. Between 10 July and 29 August she provided training services for submarines at Bermuda and then entered the Brooklyn Navy Yard. There she was stripped of her armament in preparation for duty as a torpedo target ship for torpedo planes assigned to the Air Force Atlantic Fleet. The SCHENCK was reclassified as AG‑82 on 25 September 1944, and provided target services for student pilots off Quonset Point, R.I., until the end of the war. The ship was twice holed by exercise torpedoes that failed to run at set depth and was struck once by a low‑flying aircraft.
The SCHENCK ended her career at the Boston Navy Yard where she was inactivated in January 1946, was decommissioned on 17 May of that year, was struck from the navy’s list on 5 June; and was sold for scrap on 25 November 1946 to the Boston Metals Co., Baltimore, Md.
