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USS FARRAGUT DD-300

Home » Ships » DD-300

Hull Number: DD-300

Launch Date: 11/21/2018

Commissioned Date: 06/04/2020

Decommissioned Date: 04/01/1930


Class: CLEMSON

CLEMSON Class

Namesake: DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT

DAVID GLASGOW FARRAGUT

Wikipedia (as of 2024)

David Glasgow Farragut (/ˈfærəɡət/; also spelled Glascoe;[1][2][3][4] July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy.[5][6] He is remembered for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased as “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” in U.S. Navy tradition.[7][8]

Born near Knoxville, Tennessee, Farragut was fostered by naval officer David Porter after the death of his mother. When he was 11 years old, Farragut served in the War of 1812 under the command of his adoptive father. He received his first command in 1823, at the age of 22, and went on to participate in anti-piracy operations in the Caribbean Sea. He then served in the Mexican–American War under the command of Matthew C. Perry, participating in the blockade of Tuxpan. After the war, he oversaw the construction of the Mare Island Navy Yard (now Mare Island Naval Shipyard), which was the first U.S. Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean.

Though Farragut resided in Norfolk, Virginia, prior to the Civil War, he was a Southern Unionist who strongly opposed Southern secession and remained loyal to the Union after the outbreak of the Civil War. Despite some doubts about Farragut’s loyalty, Farragut was assigned command of an attack on the important Confederate port city of New Orleans. After defeating the Confederates at the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, Farragut captured New Orleans in April 1862. He was promoted to rear admiral after the battle and helped extend Union control up along the Mississippi River, participating in the siege of Port Hudson. With the Union in control of the Mississippi, Farragut led a successful attack on Mobile Bay, home to the last major Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico. Farragut was promoted to admiral following the end of the Civil War and remained on active duty until his death in 1870.

James Glasgow Farragut was born in 1801 to George Farragut (born Jordi Farragut Mesquida, 1755–1817), a Spanish Balearic merchant captain from the Mediterranean island of Menorca, and his wife Elizabeth (née Shine, 1765–1808), of North Carolina Scotch-Irish American descent, at Lowe’s Ferry on the Holston River in Tennessee.[9] It was a few miles southeast of Campbell’s Station, near Knoxville.[10]

After serving in the Spanish merchant marine, George Farragut immigrated to North America in 1776 and served as a naval officer during the American Revolutionary War. He was first with the South Carolina Navy, then with the Continental Navy. George and Elizabeth moved west to Tennessee after his service in the Revolution, where he operated Lowe’s Ferry and served as a cavalry officer in the Tennessee militia.[6]

In 1805, George accepted a position at the U.S. port of New Orleans. He traveled there first and his family followed in a 1,700-mile (2,700 km) flatboat guided by hired rivermen. It was four-year-old James’s first voyage. The family was still living in New Orleans when Elizabeth died of yellow fever. George Farragut made plans to place the young children with friends and family who could better care for them.

In 1808, after his mother’s death, James agreed to live with United States Navy officer David Porter, whose father had served with George Farragut during the Revolution.[11] In 1812, he adopted the name “David” in honor of his foster father, with whom he went to sea late in 1810. David Farragut grew up in a naval family, with foster brothers David Dixon Porter, a future Civil War admiral, and William D. Porter, who became a Commodore.

Farragut’s naval career began as a midshipman when he was nine years old, and continued for 60 years until his death at the age of 69. This included service in several wars, most notably during the American Civil War, where he gained fame for winning several decisive naval battles.

Farragut’s naval career began when he was added to the U.S. Navy’s rolls with the rank of “boy” in the spring of 1810.[12] Through the influence of his foster father, Farragut was warranted a midshipman in the U.S. Navy on December 17, 1810, at the age of nine.[13][note 1] A prize master by the age of 11, Farragut fought in the War of 1812, serving under Captain Porter, his foster father. While serving aboard the frigate USS Essex, Farragut participated in the capture of HMS Alert on August 13, 1812,[14][15] He helped to establish America’s first naval base and colony in the Pacific, named Fort Madison, during the ill-fated Nuku Hiva Campaign in the Marquesas Islands. At the same time, the Americans battled the hostile tribes on the islands with the help of their Te I’i allies.

Farragut was 11 years old when, during the War of 1812, he was given the assignment to bring a ship captured by the Essex safely to port.[16] He was wounded and captured while serving on the Essex during the engagement at Valparaíso Bay, Chile, against the British on March 28, 1814.[17]

In 1823, Farragut was placed in command of USS Ferret, which was his first command of a U.S. naval vessel.[18][19] He served in the Mosquito Fleet, a fleet of ships fitted out to fight pirates in the Caribbean Sea. After learning his old captain, Commodore Porter, would be commander of the fleet, he asked for, and received, orders to serve aboard Greyhound, one of the smaller vessels, commanded by John Porter, brother of David Porter. On February 14, 1823, the fleet set sail for the West Indies where, for the next six months, they would drive the pirates off the sea, and rout them from their hiding places in among the islands.[20] He was executive officer aboard the Experiment during its campaign in the West Indies fighting pirates.[21] Farragut was promoted to lieutenant in 1825.[19]

In 1847, Farragut, now a commander, took command of the sloop-of-war USS Saratoga when she was recommissioned at Norfolk Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia. Assigned to the Home Squadron for service in the Mexican–American War, Saratoga departed Norfolk on March 29, 1847, bound for the Gulf of Mexico under Farragut’s command and upon arriving off Veracruz, Mexico, on April 26, 1847, reported to the squadron’s commander, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, for duty. On April 29, Perry ordered Farragut to sail Saratoga 150 nautical miles (170 mi; 280 km) to the north to blockade Tuxpan, where she operated from April 30 to July 12 before Farragut returned to Veracruz. About two weeks later, Farragut began a round-trip voyage to carry dispatches to Tabasco, returning to Veracruz on August 11, 1847. On September 1, 1847, Farragut and Saratoga returned to blockade duty off Tuxpan, remaining there for two months despite a yellow fever outbreak on board. Farragut then brought the ship back to Veracruz and, after a month there, got underway for the Pensacola Navy Yard in Pensacola, Florida, where Saratoga arrived on January 6, 1848, disembarked all of her seriously sick patients at the base hospital, and replenished her stores. On January 31, 1848, Farragut took the ship out of Pensacola bound for New York City, arriving there on February 19. Saratoga was decommissioned there on February 26, 1848.[22]

In 1853, Secretary of the Navy James C. Dobbin selected Commander David G. Farragut to create Mare Island Navy Yard near San Francisco in San Pablo Bay. In August 1854, Farragut was called to Washington from his post as assistant inspector of ordnance at Norfolk, Virginia. President Franklin Pierce congratulated Farragut on his naval career and the task he was to undertake. On September 16, 1854, Commander Farragut arrived to oversee the building of the Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California, which became the port for ship repairs on the West Coast. Captain Farragut commissioned Mare Island on July 16, 1858. Farragut returned to a hero’s welcome at Mare Island on August 11, 1859.[23][24]

Though living in the south, prior to the American Civil War, Farragut made it clear to all who knew him that he regarded secession as treason. Just before the war’s outbreak, Farragut moved with his Virginian-born wife to Hastings-on-Hudson, a small town just outside New York City.[9][25]

He offered his services to the Union, and was initially given a seat on the Naval Retirement Board. Offered a command by his foster brother, David Dixon Porter, for a special assignment, he hesitated upon learning the target might be Norfolk. As he had friends and relatives living there, he was relieved to learn the target was changed to his former childhood home of New Orleans.[25]

Farragut was appointed under secret instructions on February 3, 1862, to command the Gulf Blockading Squadron, sailing from Hampton Roads on the screw steamer USS Hartford, bearing 25 guns, which he made his flagship, accompanied by a fleet of 17 ships. He reached the mouth of the Mississippi River, near Confederate forts St. Philip and Jackson, situated opposite one another along the banks of the river, with a combined armament of more than 100 heavy guns and a complement of 700 men. Now aware of Farragut’s approach, the Confederates had amassed a fleet of 16 gunboats just outside New Orleans.[26]

On April 18, Farragut ordered the mortar boats, under the command of Porter, to commence bombardment on the two forts, inflicting considerable damage, but not enough to compel the Confederates to surrender. After two days of heavy bombardment, Farragut ran past forts Jackson and St. Philip and the Chalmette batteries to take the city and port of New Orleans on April 29, a decisive event in the war.[27]

Congress honored him by creating the rank of rear admiral on July 16, 1862, a rank never before used in the U.S. Navy. Before this time, the American Navy had resisted the rank of admiral, preferring the term “flag officer”, to distinguish the rank from the traditions of the European navies. Farragut was promoted to rear admiral along with 13 other officers – three others on the active list and ten on the retired list.

Later that year, Farragut passed the batteries defending Vicksburg, Mississippi, but had no success there. A makeshift Confederate ironclad forced his flotilla of 38 ships to withdraw in July 1862.

While an aggressive commander, Farragut was not always cooperative. At the siege of Port Hudson, the plan was that Farragut’s flotilla would pass by the guns of the Confederate stronghold with the help of a diversionary land attack by the Army of the Gulf, commanded by General Nathaniel Banks, to commence at 8:00 a.m. on March 15, 1863. Farragut unilaterally decided to move the timetable up to 9:00 p.m. on March 14, and initiated his run past the guns before Union ground forces were in position. The consequently uncoordinated attack allowed the Confederates to concentrate on Farragut’s flotilla and inflict heavy damage to his warships.

Farragut’s flotilla was forced to retreat with only two ships able to pass the heavy cannon of the Confederate bastion. After surviving the gauntlet, Farragut played no further part in the battle for Port Hudson, and General Banks was left to continue the siege without the advantage of naval support. The Union Army made two major attacks on the fort; both were repulsed with heavy losses. Farragut’s flotilla was splintered, yet was able to blockade the mouth of the Red River with the two remaining warships; he could not efficiently patrol the section of the Mississippi between Port Hudson and Vicksburg. Farragut’s decision proved costly to the Union Navy and the Union Army, which suffered its highest casualty rate of the war at Port Hudson.

Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863, leaving Port Hudson as the last remaining Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. General Banks accepted the surrender of the Confederate garrison at Port Hudson on July 9, ending the longest siege in U.S. military history. Control of the Mississippi River was the centerpiece of the Union strategy to win the war, and, with the surrender of Port Hudson, the Confederacy was now cut in two.

On August 5, 1864, Farragut won a great victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay. Mobile, Alabama, was then the Confederacy’s last major open port on the Gulf of Mexico. The bay was heavily mined (tethered naval mines were then known as “torpedoes”).[28] Farragut ordered his fleet to charge the bay. As the battle progressed, smoke blocked Farragut’s view from his position on the USS Hartford. In a detailed account of the episode, Robert M. Browning reveals that, in order to see better, Farragut climbed the ship’s rigging until he reached the futtock shrouds under the main top. Fearing for his safety, the crew lashed him to the mast and rigging.[29]

When the monitor USS Tecumseh struck a mine and sank, the others began to pull back. “What’s the trouble?” he shouted through a trumpet to USS Brooklyn. “Torpedoes”, was the shouted reply. “Damn the torpedoes.”, said Farragut, “Four bells, Captain Drayton, go ahead. Jouett, full speed.”[30][31] The bulk of the fleet succeeded in entering the bay. Farragut triumphed over the opposition of heavy batteries in Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines to defeat the squadron of Admiral Franklin Buchanan.

On December 21, 1864, Lincoln promoted Farragut to vice admiral, which made him the senior ranking officer in the United States Navy.

After the Civil War, Farragut was elected a companion of the first class of the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States on March 18, 1866, and assigned insignia number 231. He served as the commander of the Commandery of New York from May 1866 until his death.

Farragut was promoted to full admiral on July 25, 1866, becoming the first U.S. Navy officer to hold that rank.[6]

His last active service was in command of the European Squadron, from 1867 to 1868, with the screw frigate USS Franklin as his flagship. Farragut remained on active duty for life, an honor accorded to only seven other U.S. Navy officers after the Civil War.[32]

Farragut died from a heart attack at the age of 69 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, while on vacation in the late summer of 1870. He had served almost sixty years in the navy. He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery, in The Bronx, New York City.[33] His gravesite is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as is Woodlawn Cemetery itself.

After appointment and an initial cruise as acting lieutenant commanding USS Ferret, Farragut married Susan Caroline Marchant on September 2, 1824.[34] After years of ill health, Susan Farragut died on December 27, 1840. Farragut was noted for his kindly treatment of his wife during her illness.[35]

After the death of his first wife, Farragut married Virginia Dorcas Loyall, on December 26, 1843, with whom he had one surviving son, named Loyall Farragut, born October 12, 1844. Loyall Farragut graduated from West Point in 1868, and served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army before resigning in 1872. He spent most of the remainder of his career as an executive with the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey. He was a hereditary member of the Military Society of the War of 1812 and a companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Loyall died on October 1, 1916, as noted on one side of the family monument that he and his mother erected to the memory of his father in Woodlawn Cemetery.[36]

Farragut had a brother named William A. C. Farragut. William was also in the Navy but had a far less distinguished career. He was warranted as a midshipman on January 16, 1809 (a year before David Farragut would begin his career) and was promoted to lieutenant on December 9, 1814. William remained at that rank until he was transferred to the Reserve List on December 15, 1855. He died on December 20, 1859.

David Farragut was initiated to the Scottish Rite Masonry.[37][38][39]

 


Disposition:

Scrapped and materials sold 10/31/1930.


Ship History

USS FARRAGUT DD-300 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2016

The second Farragut (Destroyer No. 300) was laid down on 4 July 1918, Independence Day, at San Francisco, Calif., by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 21 November 1918; sponsored by the wife of Capt. Templin M. Potts, USN (Ret.), President of the Board of Inspection and Survey, Pacific; and commissioned on 4 June 1920, Cmdr. Pierre L. Wilson in command.

Farragut sailed from the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif., on 2 July 1920, and the following day reached San Diego. Soon thereafter, as the Navy adopted a standard system of ship nomenclature, the ship was redesignated as DD-300 on 17 July 1920. The ship served initially with Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 32, Destroyer Flotilla 5, Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 4, Pacific Fleet. She completed repairs at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., and on 31 March 1922 resumed full commission. Farragut participated in the Portland (Ore.) Rose Festival (18–29 June), and returned to San Francisco on 6 July. The destroyer took up a regular training schedule along the west coast, carrying out division gunnery and fleet tactical exercises in California waters into 1923.

The annual fleet problems concentrated the Navy’s power to conduct maneuvers on the largest scale and under the most realistic conditions attainable. Fleet Problem I included a test of the defenses of the Panama Canal against aerial attacks. The Blue Fleet and Army coast artillery and aircraft defended the important isthmian waterway, assisted by 18 patrol planes of Scouting Plane Squadron 1 operating from tenders Wright (AZ-1), Sandpiper (AM-51), and Teal (AM-23). Planners compensated for the lack of aircraft carriers and planes for the attack­ing Black Fleet by designating two battleships as simulated carriers.

Farragut sailed from San Diego on 6 February 1923, and reached Culebra Island, P.R., on 21 February. During Fleet Problem I, the ship operated with DesRons 11 and 12 from Puerto Rican waters westward toward Balboa. Battleship Oklahoma (BB-37) approached the area and launched a seaplane by catapult to scout ahead of the Black Fleet on 21 February. Early the following morning, a single plane representing an air group took off from Naranyas Cays in the Panama Canal Zone, flew undetected and without encountering aerial opposi­tion or antiaircraft fire, and theoretically destroyed the Gatun Spillway with ten miniature bombs. The lessons learned included the need to provide for more planes and antiaircraft guns to defend the canal, to “rush completion” of carriers, and to fit all battleships with catapults.

Farragut steamed from Panama on 1 April 1923. The ship suffered engine trouble and required a tow from oiler Neches (AO-5) on 4 April, but she returned to San Diego on 11 April and then resumed DesDiv 31 torpedo practice and gunnery with the Battle Fleet Plane Detachment. The destroyer began a cruise with DesDiv 31 on 29 June, briefly visited San Francisco, arrived at Marshfield, Ore., on 2 July, and reached Seattle, Wash., shortly thereafter. Farragut participated in a Naval Review by President Warren G. Harding, en route home from a tour of Alaska, at Seattle on 27 July.

The ship sailed with a draft of men as part of DesRon 11 and escorted Battle Division 4 on 27 August 1923, and reached San Francisco on 31 August. On the morning of 8 September, 14 destroyers of DesRon 11 put to sea for a two-day voyage to San Diego. The squadron comprised the five ships of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 33, with Delphy (DD-261) as the van, followed by S.P. Lee (DD-310), Young (DD-312), Woodbury (DD-309), and Nicholas (DD-311); six ships from DesDiv 31, with Farragut, followed by Fuller (DD-297), Percival (DD-298), Somers (DD-301), Chauncey (DD-296), and Kennedy (DD-306); and three ships from DesDiv 32, Paul Hamilton (DD-307), Stoddert (DD-302), and Thompson (DD-305). The warships conducted tactical and gunnery exercises and a competitive speed run of 20 knots. Later in the day the weather worsened, and they formed column on squadron leader Delphy.

Tragically, the flagship broadcast an erroneous report, based on an improperly interpreted radio compass bearing, showing the squadron’s position about nine miles off Point Arguello, Calif., at 2000. An hour later, the destroyers turned east to enter what their navigators believed to be the Santa Barbara Channel, but thick fog obscured the waters that lay ahead of them. An earthquake had devastated the Kantō plain of the central Honshū area of Japan shortly before mid-day on 1 September. The disaster caused abnormally strong currents along the California coast, which, in combination with navigational complacency, led the squadron onto the rocks off Pedernales Point, near Honda, just north of Point Arguello.

Delphy turned but struck the rocks at 2105, plowing ashore at 20 knots. S.P. Lee followed her, striking and swinging broadside against the bluffs. Young piled up adjacent to Delphy and capsized, trapping many of her fire and engine room crewmen below. Woodbury, Nicholas, and Fuller hit reefs and ran aground offshore, and Chauncey ran in close aboard Young. Alarm sirens sounded on board Somers and Farragut as those two ships slowed, just touching ground before backing off in time to avoid the disaster that had befallen their sisters. The other five destroyers steered clear.

The damage from their groundings and the pounding surf eventually wrecked seven destroyers, but the slow, cumulative, process of the ships’ damage gave the crewmen time to escape. Rescue parties scoured the area for sailors, small boats and local fishermen picked up swimmers, and life lines strung to shore allowed the rest to wade to safety. Twenty men, however, died in Young and three in Delphy before the last survivors escaped on the afternoon of 9 September.

Farragut reached San Diego on 10 September 1923. She completed repairs alongside destroyer tender Melville (AD-2), and on a marine railway at La Playa, that had been designed during World War I to haul medium-sized naval and commercial vessels out of the water for repairs and maintenance. The destroyer then resumed her operating schedule of gunnery training and torpedo recovery.

During the winter the Battle Fleet, Scouting Fleet, and Control Force carried out tactical exercises for Fleet Problems II, III, and IV en route to Panama and from those waters to the point of mobilization at Culebra Island. Farragut helped escort the Battle Fleet from San Diego on 2 January 1924, reaching Balboa on 16 January. The following day, she passed through the Panama Canal to Colón. The destroyer maneuvered with the fleet from Colón to Culebra Island (25 January–1 February), steamed northward and visited Savannah, Ga. (29 February–14 March), and returned to Culebra for scouting maneuvers and advanced battle torpedo practice with the fleet (18–31 March). Farragut put into Colón (31 March–6 April), carried out tactical maneuvers with the other ships, and then passed through the isthmian waterway, Balboa-bound. She returned to San Diego on 22 April.

The ship sailed for fleet tactical exercises off Port Angeles, Wash. (25 June–1 July 1924), after which time she received an overhaul at the Puget Sound Navy Yard (1 September–30 October). She then returned to San Diego, conducting almost daily gunnery practice, as well as torpedo target practice and recovery, with DesRons 11 and 12 during the voyage (30 October–3 November).

Fleet Problem V marked the first problem to incorporate aircraft carriers, though the small size of aircraft carrier Langley (CV-1) and the inexperience of her crew in plane-handling restricted her operations (2–11 March 1925). Farragut steamed as the flagship of DesDiv 31 and the division guide to southern Californian and northern Mexican waters. She screened a Battle Fleet convoy during the exercise, and returned to San Diego on 12 March. The ship took part in scouting line and torpedo firing tactics outside the harbors of San Pedro and Los Angeles, Calif.

Seaplane No. 1, a Vought UO-1 embarked on board Oklahoma, flew an urgent mail run from the battleship to San Diego on 1 April 1925. The plane suffered an engine casualty and made a forced landing about ten miles off Oceanside, Calif., at 1750. Heavy seas and wind buffeted the plane, but the pontoons remained intact. The pilot examined the engine and discovered that cylinder No. 7 had been carried away during the accident, and part of the crankcase around Nos 6 and 8 had fractured. When the plane failed to return to San Pedro, several destroyers including Farragut began to search for it, beginning shortly after 1900. At 0130 on 2 April, destroyer Henshaw (DD-278) spotted the seaplane signaling with its lights, about eight miles off Del Mar. Henshaw secured the plane astern of her until 1130, when tender Aroostook (CM-3), en route from San Diego to San Pedro, stopped and hoisted the aircraft on board.

Farragut put to sea in company with the fleet for an exercise toward Hawaiian waters on 3 April 1925. She paused at San Francisco (5–15 April) and then sailed as part of a convoy screening formation. The destroyer reached Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii (T.H.), on 27 April, and received men on board for transfer to Puget Sound Navy Yard. She departed on 7 May, and reached Bremerton on 14 May. The ship completed an overhaul in drydock while many of her crewmen attended the torpedo school at Keyport, Wash. (14 May–14 July). Farragut sailed on 14 July and visited Pearl Harbor on 19 July. She then joined other ships present at Lahaina Roads, off the island of Maui, T.H., for operations that included target practice.

Pilot Cmdr. John Rodgers, copilot Lt. Byron J. Connell, and a crew of three attempted to fly a PN-9 flying boat (BuNo A-6878), from San Francisco to Honolulu on 31 August 1925. Lack of fuel forced the plane down shortly after 1600 on 1 September. Despite an extensive air and sea search, Rodgers and his crew remained lost at sea for ten days, but the intrepid aviators rigged sail from the wing fabric and set course for the island of Kauai. The PN-9 covered about 450 miles under sail before the submarine R-4 (SS-81) sighted the flying boat on 10 September, barely ten miles from the goal of the voyage. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale accepted the 1,841.12 statute miles they flew until the landing as a new world airline distance record for Class C seaplanes, a record that remained unbeaten for almost five years.

Farragut had steamed from Pearl Harbor on 7 September 1925 as one of ten ships, including Langley and Aroostook, that formed a ‘flight line’ to search for Rodgers and his crew. The plane apparently passed near Farragut’s patrol station, but the sailors involved afterward failed to determine where this occurred, however, because a radio compass bearing from Aroostook, steaming on station before Farragut, placed the plane to the south of the tender, but Rodgers’s dead reckoning placed the PN-9 to the north of her. Farragut returned to San Diego on 17 September. During the remainder of that month and into October, the ship carried out torpedo recovery for Battleship Division 4 off San Pedro, and torpedo firing practice with DesDiv 31.

Halfway into the forenoon watch on 27 January 1926, during long-range battle practice and battle torpedo practice “B” off Point Loma, Calif., Farragut was engaged in making a run, firing 4-inch salvoes to port, when a cartridge exploded in gun no.2, blowing the base of the cartridge case and the breech-plug assembly out the rear, the plug itself passing through the gravity tank, no. 1 stack, and part of the bridge. Fragments holed no.1 stack, holed and dished-in a portion of the no.2 stack, badly damaged the ammunition rack for no.2 gun, damaged the life raft alongside no.1 stack, the blast carried away the rail on the starboard bridge ladder, dished-in (but did not perforate) the forward well-deck bulkhead, and tore up wiring and voice tubing in the wake of the explosion. In addition, the concussion tore away the girder supporting the after end of the bridge and decking just outboard of the starboard bridge ladder.

Despite the fact that the presence of a board convened in the destroyer tender Melville resulted in the division medical officer not being present at the time of the accident, prompt action to obtain medical attention to the injured men ensued. Chief Pharmacist’s Mate Albert E. Stanley, although suffering a laceration of his left leg, “tendered efficient first aid to the injured…” Seaman 2nd Class Otis L. Bogar died of severe burns and multiple injuries that day, however, while Chief Boatswain’s Mate Joseph Becker, “an experienced gun captain…efficient and careful in the performance of his duties…” succumbed to burns, multiple wounds, and shock at the U.S. Naval Hospital, San Diego, Calif., twenty minutes into the mid watch on 28 January 1926.

Other men who suffered injuries of varying severity that morning included Seaman 1st Class Joseph G. Lea, Seamen 2nd Class Allen A. Bursley, John M. Carter, and Ernest C. Lively, Coxswain Ernest A. McKinnon and Mess Attendant 2nd Class Mauricio B. Magante. Fireman 2nd Class Floyd A. English, knocked down by the force of the blast, protected the base of a loaded cartridge with his hand.

The ensuing court of inquiry opined that Farragut carried out the battle practice properly, with her gun crews well versed in safety precautions. It found that “on the round previous to the explosion the firing-pin point was broken off and pressed to one side of the orifice of the face of the plug, where it remained lodged securely, either wedged or brazed by metal from the primer,” and that the broken-off portion of the firing pin “struck the cap of the primer when the plug was being closed, causing the cartridge to explode before the plug was locked.” In failing to detect the condition, the court of inquiry believed, the gun captain, who died of his injuries suffered in the explosion, had unwittingly and indirectly caused the accident. The Farragut’s men had been “well drilled, instructed, and disciplined” before, during, and after the accident, rising to the occasion to “care for the injured and to safeguard material.”

The court concluded “that the deaths and injuries…were incurred in the line of duty and were not due to the misconduct or to the fault, inefficiency, or negligence of any person or persons in the naval service or connected therewith.” The court recommended no further proceedings and that the parts recovered (practically the entire breech mechanism, part of the cartridge that had exploded, and the “eight other cartridge cases said to have been fired from gun no.2 on [that] run”) be forwarded to the Bureau of Ordnance “for such further examination as the bureau may desire to make.”

While Rear Adm. Frank H. Schofield, Commander Destroyers, Battle Fleet, approved the court’s proceedings, findings, opinion, and recommendations, Adm. Charles F. Hughes, Commander in Chief, Battle Fleet, found that “regrettably…the explosion which resulted in the deaths and injuries…was due to the failure of the gun captain to comply fully with the safety regulations.” The Chief of Naval Operations concurred in the opinions of the reviewing authority, while the Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance concluded by noting the gun captain’s failure, he also directed the attention of all concerned to the necessity of “completely assembling the firing mechanism in the breechblock in the proper manner…”

Soon thereafter, regular operations resumed, with Farragut sailing in company with the Battle Fleet from San Diego on 1 February 1926 to take part in Fleet Problem VI, a joint Army-Navy minor problem that involved strategic and tactical exercises in the vicinity of the Panama Canal Zone eastward toward Puerto Rico. Farragut reached Balboa on 15 February, and maneuvered at sea with the fleet off Culebra Island (15–20 March). She returned to San Diego on 1 April.

The ship steamed for a cruise up the west coast on 14 June 1926. Cmdr. Roscoe C. MacFall broke his flag in Farragut in command of DesDiv 31, DesRon 11. Farragut rendezvoused with the Battle Fleet, and reached Bremerton on 20 June. She took part in additional maneuvers with the Battle Fleet and returned to San Diego (2 August–1 September).

Farragut departed San Diego to participate in Fleet Problem VII on 27 February 1927. The problem called for the Blue Fleet, which comprised the Battle Fleet less submarine divisions, Train Squadron 2, and submarines operating from Coco Solo, to escort a large and slow overseas convoy, and then to establish a base. The Black Fleet, which consisted of the Scouting Fleet, Train Squadron 1, and the Control Force less the submarines at Coco Solo, opposed these operations. Farragut reached Balboa on 3 March, and passed through the Panama Canal and lay-to at Colón (4–9 March).

The Black Fleet blockaded the various passages into the Caribbean from its principal base at Gonaives, Haiti, where Farragut joined the fleet on 14 March 1928. Following the problem, the ship took part in the Annual Military Inspection at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (18–26 March). Farragut then continued northward with a fleet cruise along the east coast, and visited New York (29 April–16 May) and Newport, R.I. (20–28 May). She took part in joint Army-Navy maneuvers off Hampton Roads, Va. (29 May–4 June). The ship passed through the Panama Canal on 11 June and returned to San Diego on 25 June. Farragut assisted DesDivs 30 and 32 with various torpedo and depth charge training and night battle practice through the summer.

Farragut took part in Fleet Problem VIII in Pacific waters between San Francisco and the Hawaiian Islands (18–28 April 1928). Fleet Problem VIII provided limited experience in aircraft carrier operations and in scouting patrols. Langley took part, with a lengthened flight deck and altered arresting gear, and in combination with her crew’s improved expertise in aircraft handling operated 42 planes: 30 fighter and 12 observation types. Aircraft tenders Aroostook and Gannet (AM-41) also took part, but the Bureau of Aeronautics reported that “little could be expected from a problem in which air operations were so limited and where the air forces available were so small.” Farragut sailed from San Diego on 9 April, operated with the other ships of the fleet off San Francisco and toward Hawaiian waters (10–18 April), and visited Pearl Harbor upon the conclusion of the exercise on 28 April. The destroyer sailed from Pearl on 15 June, and returned to San Diego on 23 June.

The ship put to sea on 1 July 1928, visited Newport, Ore. (2–7 July) and Tacoma, Wash. (8–16 July), and completed her annual overhaul at Puget Sound (16 July–25 August). She sailed on 25 August and rejoined the Battle Fleet at San Francisco (28–31 August). Farragut visited the Pacific Southwest Exposition at Long Beach, Calif. (1–4 September).

Farragut steamed from San Diego on 15 January 1929 to take part in Fleet Problem IX (23–27 January). The participation of aircraft carriers Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3), attached to the opposing forces, introduced new elements into fleet operations, including Saratoga’semployment to achieve the theoretical destruction of the Panama Canal. The Black fleet, including Saratoga and Aroostook (that relieved Langley while she completed yard work), represented a ‘Pacific power’ and steamed toward the Panamanian Isthmus to attack the Blue fleet, including Lexington, which portrayed the U.S. fleet as it passed through the Panama Canal. Subject to that condition, planners intended the Black fleet to attempt to attain surprise.

Saratoga and light cruiser Omaha (CL-4) detached from the Blue force on 22 January 1929, and sailed on a wide southward sweep before turning north to approach the canal. Saratoga launched a strike group of 69 planes that arrived over the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks undetected shortly after dawn on 26 January, and “destroyed” the locks without opposition. The following morning, Lexington sighted Saratoga on her port quarter at 17,000 yards and opened fire with her 8-inch guns.

The Bureau of Aeronautics noted that the losses incurred drove home the necessity of providing carriers with the “maximum escort protection.” The demonstration impressed naval leaders, and in the 1930 maneuvers a tactical command built around an aircraft carrier appeared in the force organization. Observers also noted the concentration of naval air power in a handful of ships that confirmed the need for small carriers to supplement the larger fleet types. Farragut sailed from Panama Bay on 11 March and returned to San Diego on 22 March.

The destroyer put to sea for the Pacific Northwest on 18 June 1929, stopped at Newport to celebrate Independence Day (29 June–5 July), then rejoined her division off Port Angeles (6–18 July). Farragut visited Portland to participate in the dedication of a bronze tablet memorial for Lt. William R. Broughton, RN, at Crown Point, Ore. (22 August). Broughton, a member of the Capt. George Vancouver [RN] Discovery Expedition, spotted Mount Hood on 29 October 1792, and the following day named it for Vice Adm. Samuel Hood, RN. She then took part in Army and Navy maneuvers off Port Townsend, Tacoma, and Port Angeles, Wash. (19–25 September).

Farragut was decommissioned at San Diego on 1 April 1930, and stricken on 22 July 1930. The ship was scrapped, and on 31 October 1930 her materials were sold in accordance with the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament (popularly known as the London Naval Treaty).