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Hull Number: DD-351

Launch Date: 08/22/1934

Commissioned Date: 03/15/1935

Decommissioned Date: 10/22/1945

Call Sign: NEND


Class: FARRAGUT (1934)

FARRAGUT (1934) Class

Data for USS Farragut (DD-348) as of 1945


Length Overall: 341' 3"

Beam: 34' 3"

Draft: 12' 4"

Standard Displacement: 1,365 tons

Full Load Displacement: 2,255 tons

Fuel capacity: 4,061 barrels

Armament:

Four 5″/38 caliber guns
Two 40mm twin anti-aircraft mounts
Two 21″ quadruple torpedo tubes

Complement:

16 Officers
235 Enlisted

Propulsion:

4 Boilers
2 Curtis Turbines: 42,800 horsepower

Highest speed on trials: 37.0 knots

Namesake: THOMAS MACDONOUGH

THOMAS MACDONOUGH

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, May 2022

Thomas Macdonough was born 23 December 1783 in The Trap (now Macdonough), Delaware. He was appointed midshipman 5 February 1800 and participated with distinction in operations against Tripoli, 1803‑04, serving on Philadelphia before her capture and volunteering for the dash into Tripoli Harbor with Decatur to burn the captured vessel. During the War of 1812, he commanded the United States Squadron on Lake Champlain. His energy in preparation and vigor in combat won a skillfully executed victory over the British in Plattsburg Bay, 11 September 1814 that had far‑reaching effects. In denying control of the lake to the British, Macdonough’s victory forced the invading army to retire to Canada, and left no grounds for British territorial claims in the area at the Ghent peace conference. Honored by Congress with promotion to captain, he served as Commandant, Portsmouth Navy Yard 1815‑18, before assuming command of Guerriere and taking up station in the Mediterranean. He sailed to the Mediterranean again in 1824 as commanding officer of Constitution, but because of poor health was relieved 14 October 1825 at his own request. He departed for home in Edwin, but died at sea 10 November 1825 and was buried in Middletown, Conn.


Disposition:

Stricken 11/1/1945. Sold 12/20/1945


USS MACDONOUGH DD-351 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, October 2022

The third Macdonough (DD‑351) was laid down on 15 May 1933 at Charlestown, Mass., by the Boston Navy Yard; launched on 22 August 1934; sponsored by Miss Rose Shaler Macdonough, granddaughter of Commodore Thomas Macdonough; and commissioned on 15 March 1935, Cmdr. Charles S. Alden in command.

Following an extensive shakedown cruise to Europe and western South America, Macdonough joined the Pacific Fleet and operated out of San Diego, Calif., until 12 October 1939, when she was assigned to the Hawaiian Detachment and shifted to a new home port, Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, as part of Destroyer Squadron 1.

In port on 7 December 1941, Macdonough splashed one of the Japanese attack planes before heading out to sea to join others in the search for the enemy task force. For the next three and a half months, the destroyer performed scouting assignments southwest of Oahu. Before returning to Pearl Harbor to escort convoys to and from west coast ports, she steamed as far as New Guinea, lending support to air strikes on Bougainville, Salamaua, and Lae.

Macdonough returned to the western Pacific to prepare for the Guadalcanal invasion. Operating with the carrier Saratoga (CV-3) she provided cover for the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, 7 August 1942. She remained in the area, taking part in the Battle of Savo Island and fighting enemy aircraft and shipping during the landing of reenforcements on the island. At the end of September, she commenced escort work, plying between New Guinea, Espiritu Santo, and Pearl Harbor until reporting to the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vajjeo, Calif., on 22 December, three days before Christmas, to begin an overhaul.

Macdonough next steamed north for the assault and occupation of Attu Island in the Aleutians. Arriving off Adak, Alaska, on 16 April 1943, the destroyer patrolled northeast of Attu until the assault. On 10 May, while maneuvering in heavy weather to guard the attack transports, she collided with the light minelayer (converted destroyer) Sicard (DM-21) and was forced to retire under tow.

The ship remained in the repairs dock at Mare Island until 23 September 1943, when she prepared to get underway for the Gilbert Islands. Arriving for the invasion of Makin Island, 20 November, she acted as control vessel for the landing craft and, following the completion of that phase of the operation, entered the lagoon to bombard Japanese installations. On 23 November, Makin was declared secure and Macdonough returned to Pearl Harbor.

In January 1944, she joined the Northern Attack Force staging for the assault on the Marshalls. As the primary fighter director ship for the initial transport group, Macdonough at first operated off Kwajalein Atoll. On 29 January, she proceeded to Wotje Atoll and participated in the shore bombardment there until returning to Kwajalein on the 31st for the occupation of Roi and Namur Islands. The indispensable destroyer then took up radar picket duties until proceeding on to Eniwetok Atoll.

On 21 and 22 February 1944, Macdonough accurately shelled enemy positions on Parry Island at the deep entrance to Eniwetok lagoon. A month later, she was a reference and rendezvous ship for carrier TF 58, then striking the Palau Islands. Continuing her varied pace, she was at Hollandia, New Guinea, by 21 April, providing fire support for the landings there. Then, at the end of the mouth she steamed eastward to take up radar picket duty south of Truk. During this assignment, Macdonough, in concert with aircraft from the small carrier Monterey (CVL-26) and the destroyer Stephen Potter (DD-538) sank the Japanese submarine RO‑45 (Lt. Cmdr. Hamazumi Yoshihisa, commanding) on 30 April 1944.

On 4 May 1944, the destroyer arrived at Majuro to join the forces gathering for the invasion of the Marianas. Departing the Marshalls on 6 June, Macdonough operated with the fast carrier force during the Saipan invasion. She performed screening and picket duties and was part of the bombardment group firing on Japanese installations on the west side of the Island.

She next took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, 19 to 20 June 1944, firing at the few enemy planes which got through the combat air patrol. After the victory, Macdonough returned to the Marianas. Ordered to Guam, she covered underwater demolition teams reconnoitering the beaches and provided harassing fire to prevent repairs to beach defenses on the island. On 21 July, the destroyer patrolled the waters off Guam to protect the assault craft from enemy submarines, continuing that role until departing for Hawaii 10 August.

After a brief stay at Pearl Harbor, Macdonough departed for the Admiralty Islands. She arrived at Manus on 15 September 1944 and commenced escort duties. On 14 October, she accompanied troop transports to Leyte and remained to protect her charges through the battle for Leyte Gulf, 24 to 25 October. She then steamed back to Manus for another convoy to Leyte, on 3 November, and upon her return to Philippine waters patrolled Leyte Gulf and the southern Surigao Strait area. The next mouth, Macdonough resumed escort duty.

Operating out of Ulithi, she guarded fleet oilers on their refueling runs in the Philippine, Formosa, and South China Sea areas. In January 1945, the destroyer sailed for Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., and a three‑month overhaul. Returning to Ulithi, she was assigned to radar picket station off that fleet base until 5 July, when she resumed screening convoys. For the remainder of the war, she protected Allied shipping between Ulithi and Okinawa.

At Guam when hostilities endedMacdonough soon received orders to return to the United States. She arrived at San Diego on 3 September 1945, continuing on the next week to the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., where she was decommissioned on 22 October 1945. She was stricken from the Navy Register on 1 November 1945.

On 20 December 1946, she was sold to George H. Nutman of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Macdonough received 13 battle stars for World War II service.

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS MACDONOUGH DD-351

The Tin Can Sailor, July 1996

The fourth of the FARRAGUTs to be authorized by Congress was built at the Boston Navy yard and be named for Commodore Thomas Macdonough, the victor of the naval battle of Plattsburg during the War of 1812. The new destroyer was launched on August 22, 1934 and commissioned in March of the following year.

After shakedown cruises that included and extended deployment to Europe, MACDONOUGH followed her sisters to service in the Pacific, the role for which she was designed. Assigned to DesRon 1, DD-351 found herself at the fleet anchorage on December 7, 1941, tied up to USS DOBBIN (AD-3) immediately east of Ford Island. She was able to splash at least one raider, then sortied from the harbor to search for the enemy carrier force. By the time MACDONOUGH and the meager forces still afloat cleared the devastated base, Imperial Japanese forces had turned West. In a way, it was fortunate; the enemy might well have found the attackers just another easy target.

For the next several months, DD-351 was assigned by the destroyer-poor Pacific Fleet to patrol the waters off Hawaii in defense of an invasion that never came. As it became clearer that the Japanese Navy’s interests had shifted from the island chain, the vital tin cans were released to support more valuable resources. America’s carriers were beginning to strike at the island bases Japan had been awarded for her aid in World War I; those priceless carriers needed screens.

DD-351 served with USS SARATOGA (CV-3) battle group in the momentous battles swirling around Guadalcanal. In one memorable contact, MACDONOUGH sighted a Japanese submarine shadowing the big carrier. As DD-351 charged the periscope, scraping the submersible’s hull, I-26 fired a spread of torpedoes at SARATOGA. One Japanese torpedo hit, but the persistence of MACDONOUGH and two other screening tin cans drove the Imperial attacker away. SARATOGA’s damage was superficial; thanks to MACDONOUGH, she would fight another day. The active destroyer soon found herself fighting off air attacks and contributing her accurate gunfire to the multitude of small unit actions that erupted around beleaguered Guadalcanal. Many a Marine must have smiled as MACDONOUGH’s pinpoint fire disrupted Japanese attacks or tore out a hidden artillery position with a single shot, but the action in the Pacific was shifting North, and DD-351’s services were needed near the Arctic.

Along with many of her sisters, DD-351 contributed to the battles that retook Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian chain from Japanese, removing one more threat to the West Coast. Enemy submarines and shore-based forces were not the only danger in the far North. In the pea-soup fog off Attu, the patrolling tin can collided with USS SICARD (DM-21), a four-stacker acting as landing craft control vessel for the attack. Superior damage control by both vessels allowed the DD-351 to be returned to the West Coast for repairs. Four months later, MACDONOUGH, none the worse for wear, was off Makin, blasting Japanese installations.

DD-351’s assignment to the task forces blasting through the Marshalls placed her “in harm’s way” at many of the pivotal battles on the road to Japan. Her expertise both in fire support and in a newer role as radar picket saw her shuttling from engagement to engagement, first in the Central Pacific, then “down south.” The ubiquitous MACDONOUGH, like her sisters, was called upon to do literally everything, and she performed in all of those roles exceptionally. From convoy duty to shore bombardment, from plane guard to carrier screen, DD-351 could be counted upon. In one notable action south of Truk, MACDONOUGH, along with USS STEPHEN POTTER (DD-538) and aircraft from the light carrier USS MONTEREY (CVL-26), succeeded in destroying the rampaging Imperial Japanese Navy’s submarine RO-45.

For the remainder of the war, DD-351 made a name for herself as an escort. She screened the vulnerable American transports during the battle for Leyte Gulf, demonstrated her shore bombardment expertise off Saipan, and added the weight of her antiaircraft fire in the battle of the Philippine Sea. She covered underwater demolition teams at Guam and defended fleet oilers operating out of the huge fleet anchorage at Ulithi. She even served as a radar picket off the base to prevent last-ditch Japanese efforts to damage the growing American armada aimed at the Japanese home islands.

When peace came, MACDONOUGH was ordered first to San Diego, then to the New York Navy Yard for decommissioning. On December 26, 1946, she was sold for scrapping.

USS MACDONOUGH (DD-351) earned thirteen battle stars for her World War II actions.