DD-256 - Tin Can Sailors

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Hull Number: DD-256

Launch Date: 03/21/2019

Commissioned Date: 06/30/2019

Decommissioned Date: 09/24/1940

Class: CLEMSON

CLEMSON Class

Namesake: GEORGE BANCROFT

GEORGE BANCROFT

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (Published 1959)

George Bancroft was born in Worcester, MA, 3 October 1800. An eminent historian and politician, he wrote The History of the United States. In 1845 he was appointed Secretary of the Navy and founded the Naval Academy. He also fostered the work of the Washington Observatory and raised the standard of professional instruction. He was later minister to Great Britain, Prussia and the North German Federation, and the German Empire. He died in Washington in 1891 and was buried in Worcester, MA.

Disposition:

Transferred to England 09/24/1940 as HMS ST. FRANCIS (I-93). Sunk in collision with SS WINDING GULF, off Sakonnett Point, Rhode Island, on 07/14/1945 while under tow to American scrap yard.

Ship History

USS BANCROFT DD-256 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (Published 1959)

The second Bancroft (DD-256) was launched 21 March 1919 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, MA; sponsored by Miss Mary W. Bancroft, great-grand-daughter of George Bancroft; and commissioned 30 June 1919, Lieutenant Commander H. S. Haislip in command.

Bancroft joined the Atlantic Fleet and took part in fleet training activities until 26 November 1919 when she went into reserve commission. She was placed out of commission at Philadelphia 11 July 1922.

Bancroft was recommissioned 18 December 1939 and served with the Atlantic Squadron on the east coast until decommissioned at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and transferred to Great Britain in the destroyer-land bases exchange 24 September 1940.

Bancroft was allocated to the Royal Canadian Navy and was taken over by the Canadians 24 September 1940 (renamed HMCS St. Francis). She left Halifax 15 January 1941 and arrived in the Clyde River, Scotland, 26 January. She joined the 4th Escort Group and on 20 May she rescued all the survivors of the steamship Starcross which had to be sunk after being torpedoed by a submarine. At the end of June she escorted a troop convoy to the Middle East and in July she joined the newly formed Newfoundland Escort Force. Between 1941 and 1943 she escorted North Atlantic convoys and made several attacks on enemy submarines.

After refitting at Halifax, St. Francis joined Escort Group C.2 in the Western Approaches Command in June 1943 but in August was transferred to the 9th Escort Group (RCN), working from Londonderry, Ireland. She returned to the Western Local Escort Force at Halifax the following month. From early 1944 she was employed on training duties at Digby, Nova Scotia, where on 1 April 1945 she was declared surplus.