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Hull Number: DD-359

Launch Date: 09/21/1936

Commissioned Date: 02/17/1937

Decommissioned Date: 06/28/1950

Call Sign: NEGM


Class: PORTER

PORTER Class

Data for USS Selfridge (DD-357) as of 1945


Length Overall: 381' 1"

Beam: 36' 11"

Draft: 13' 9"

Standard Displacement: 1,850 tons

Full Load Displacement: 2,840 tons

Fuel capacity: 4,061 barrels

Armament:

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

Complement:

16 Officers
278 Enlisted

Propulsion:

4 Boilers
2 New York Shipbuilding Turbines: 50,000 horsepowe

Highest speed on trials: 36.4 knots

Namesake: JOHN ANCRUM WINSLOW

JOHN ANCRUM WINSLOW

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2016

Cameron McRae Winslow, second eounsin of Rear Admiral John A. Winslow, was born in Washington, D.C., on 29 July 1854. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 1874 and following extensive sea duty in succeeding years, then, Lieutenant Winslow served on board USS Nashville during the Spanish-American War. He was commended for extraordinary heroism when, on 11 May 1898, he commanded a boat expedition from Nashville and Marblehead which succeeded in cutting two submarine cables off Cienfuegos, Cuba, which linked Cuba with Europe. Despite withering enemy fire from point blank range which resulted in a bullet wound to his hand, Winslow retained command throughout the engagement.

Winslow commanded USS Charleston from 1905 to 1907 and battleship New Hampshire from 1908 to 1909. Promoted to rear admiral on 14 September 1911, Wins-low was Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet, from 13 September 1915 until 29 July 1916 when he was retired due to the statutory age limit. Recalled to active duty in World War I, he served as Inspector of Naval Districts on the Atlantic coast until again retiring on 11 November 1919. Admiral Winslow died in Boston on 2 January 1932.


Disposition:

Stricken 12/5/1957. Sold 2/23/1959


A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS WINSLOW DD-359

The Tin Can Sailor, October 1996

The fourth PORTER-class destroyer leader to be built by New York Shipbuilding was also laid down on December 18, 1935. She was to be the final destroyer type built at the Camden, New Jersey Yard until after World War II. As it happened, she would remain longest in naval service among the powerful PORTERS.

USS WINSLOW was named for John Ancrum Winslow, captain of USS KEARSARGE in her June 19, 1864 epic duel with the Confederate raider CSS ALABAMA. A cousin, Cameron McRae Winslow, would also rise to prominence in the Navy, serving as Inspector General of Atlantic bases after a career that included billets as captain of the battleship NEW HAMPSHIRE (BB-25) and commander-in-chief, Pacific fleet. The first two ships to bear the name WINSLOW were named for the captain of the KEARSARGE, while DD-359 was named for both veterans.

DD-359 took nearly three years to build and an additional four months to commission and outfitting took considerable time, but the big, new flotilla leader was ready for her shakedown cruise by October 19, 1937. Like several of her sisters, she cruised the waters off western Europe during a time of great unrest; showing the flag and demonstrating America’s naval might. She completed her final acceptance trials and was assigned, like others of her class, to serve with the Pacific fleet, home ported in San Diego, with DESRON 9. Her three-year service with the Pacific fleet was terminated in 1941. As the Atlantic conflict heated up, the navy needed modern destroyer resources, so WINSLOW was transferred to the Atlantic fleet. WINSLOW was to protect the President in his meetings with Prime Ministers Churchill in Newfoundland. DD-359 was escorting convoy WX-12X with her sister, MCDOUGAL, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Like MCDOUGAL, WINSLOW spent much of her active career with Vice Admiral Jonas Ingram’s Fourth Fleet, given the task of protecting the South Atlantic convoy routes from German underseas and surface raiders. By March 1945, the much-traveled destroyer had convoyed new ships to the Caribbean and completed five escort missions with embattled convoys through cold North Atlantic waters.

By March 1945, WINSLOW was overdue for a major overhaul. At the Charleston Navy Yard, she lost her torpedo tubes, exchanged her 5-inch single-purpose weapons for five dual-purpose mounts. Bofors 40-mm anti-aircraft mounts and lighter 20-mm cannon were added so that the big destroyer would be available for the closing battles around Japan. By the time training with the new-weapons was completed, the war was over.

With her new equipment, WINSLOW was admirably suited for her next assignment. On September 17, 1945, WINSLOW was redesignated AG-127 and assigned to test antiaircraft ordinance as part of the Atlantic fleet’s Operational Development Force. For the next five years, WINSLOW helped to develop ordinance which would serve the Navy in good stead during the Cold War. Finally decommissioned in 1950, she remained with the Charleston groups, Atlantic fleet Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Navy list. She was sold for scrap on February 23, 1959.

USS WINSLOW DD-359 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2016

The third Winslow (DD-359), one of eight ships in a unique class of heavily armed destroyer squadron leaders, was laid down on 18 December 1933 at Camden, N.J., by the New York Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 21 September 1936; sponsored by Miss Mary Blythe Winslow; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 17 February 1937, Comdr. Irving R. Chambers in command.

The warship completed outfitting in October and, on the 19th, embarked upon a shakedown cruise which took her to ports in Sweden, England, France, Portugal, and Africa. Upon her return to the western hemisphere, she passed her final acceptance trials off the coast of Maine and was assigned to Battle Force, Destroyers, in the Pacific. Early in 1938, she transited the Panama Canal and joined Destroyer Squadron 9 at San Diego. Over the next three years, Winslow conducted operations in the eastern Pacific-generally between Hawaii and the west coast, from her home port at San Diego.

By 1941, events in Europe, where World War II was already in its second year, necessitated the strengthening of American naval forces in the Atlantic. Accordingly, Winslow retransited the canal in April and, after visiting Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, reported for duty at Norfolk, Va. That summer, she conducted training operations with submarines off the New England coast. Later, she also participated in neutrality patrols, particularly those directed at keeping watch over the Vichy French ships at Martinique and Guadeloupe in the French Antilles. Early in August, Winslow joined Tuscaloosa (CA-37) in escorting Augusta (CA-31) as that heavy cruiser carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Argentia, Newfoundland, to meet British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the conference which resulted in the Atlantic Charter. Then, after escorting transports carrying reinforcements to Iceland, the destroyer arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, early in November and became a unit in the screen of America’s first convoy to the Orient. Convoy WS-12X, bound via the Cape of Good Hope for Singapore, departed Halifax on 10 November. Just before the convoy reached Capetown, South Africa, where the destroyers were to part company with the convoy and head for home, word arrived that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.

After leaving the convoy at Capetown, Winslow returned to the United States where she was assigned to Vice Admiral Jonas H. Ingrain’s 4th Fleet, which had grown out of the South Atlantic neutrality patrols. The warship patrolled the area between Brazil and Africa, hunting German submarines and blockade runners until April 1944. On two occasions during that period, she returned briefly to the United States, in June 1942 and in October 1943, to undergo repairs at Charleston, S.C.

In April 1944, the warship began escorting newly constructed warships from Boston, via Norfolk, to the West Indies. After three such voyages, she began escorting convoys from New York to England and Ireland in August. She made five round-trip voyages across the Atlantic before putting into Charleston again in March 1945 for a four-month overhaul.

While in Charleston for alterations, she lost her torpedo tubes, traded her light, single-purpose, 5-inch guns for five dual-purpose 5-inch guns. In addition, she received 16 40-millimeter and four 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns in preparation for services in the Pacific.

However, by the end of her refresher training out of Casco Bay, Maine, hostilities had ceased. Accordingly, Winslow received orders to begin experimental work testing antiaircraft ordnance. On 17 September 1945, the ship was redesignated AG-127. She continued her experimental work with the Operational Development Force until she was decommissioned on 28 June 1950. Winslow remained in reserve, berthed with the Charleston Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet, until declared unfit for further naval service on 5 December 1957. Her name was struck from the Navy list on that same day, and she was sold on 23 February 1959 for scrapping.