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Hull Number: DD-394

Launch Date: 04/16/1938

Commissioned Date: 08/19/1938

Decommissioned Date: 11/08/1945


Class: SOMERS

SOMERS Class

Data for USS Somers (DD-381) as of 1945


Length Overall: 381' 0"

Beam: 36' 11"

Draft: 14' 0"

Standard Displacement: 1,850 tons

Full Load Displacement: 2,905 tons

Fuel capacity: 3,452 barrels

Armament:

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

Complement:

16 Officers
278 Enlisted

Propulsion:

4 Boilers
2 General Electric Turbines: 52,000 horsepower

Highest speed on trials: 39.0 knots

Namesake: WILLIAM THOMAS SAMPSON

WILLIAM THOMAS SAMPSON

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, April 2020

William Thomas Sampson, born on 9 February 1840 in Palmyra, N.Y., entered the United States Naval Academy on 24 September 1857. After graduating 1st in his class four years later, he served as an instructor at the Academy. In 1864, he became the executive officer of the monitor Patapsco of the South Atlantic Blockading Station and engaged in sweeping torpedoes off Charleston. He survived the loss of that ironclad on 15 January 1865, when she struck a torpedo, exploded, and sank with a loss of 75 lives. Following duty in the steam frigate, Colorado, on the European Station, another tour as instructor at the Naval Academy, and in the Bureau of Navigation of the Navy Department, he served in the screw sloop, Congress. He then commanded Alert, practice ship Mayflower, and Swatara while on duty at the Naval Academy. During the next years, he was Assistant to the Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, then Officer-in-Charge of the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, R.I. On 9 September 1886, he became Superintendent of the Naval Academy. He was promoted to Captain on 9 April 1889, reported to the Mare Island Navy Yard to fit out San Francisco, and assumed command when that protected cruiser was commissioned on 15 November 1889. He was detached in June 1892 to serve as Inspector of Ordnance in the Washington Navy Yard and was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance on 28 January 1893. He assumed command of battleship, Iowa, on 15 June 1897. On 17 February 1898, he was made President of the Board of Inquiry to investigate the destruction of battleship, Maine. On 26 March 1898, he assumed command of the North Atlantic Station, with the temporary rank of Rear Admiral. The United States declared war against Spain on 21 April 1898; and, eight days later, Admiral Cervera’s fleet sailed from the Cape Verde Islands for an uncertain destination. Admiral Sampson, in flagship New York, put to sea from Key West in search of the Spanish Fleet and established a close and efficient blockade on that fleet in the harbor of Santiago on 1 June 1898. On the morning of 3 July 1898, Cervera’s fleet came out of the harbor and was completely destroyed in a running sea battle lasting five hours. The next day, Rear Admiral Sampson sent his famous message: “The Fleet under my command offers the nation as a Fourth of July present, the whole of Cervera’s Fleet!” He was appointed Cuban Commissioner on 20 August 1898 but resumed command of the North Atlantic Fleet in December. He became Commandant of the Boston Navy Yard in October 1899 and transferred to the Retired List on 9 February 1902. Rear Admiral Sampson died in Washington, D.C., on 6 May 1902 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.


Disposition:

Fitted as leader. Stricken 11/28/1945. Scrapped 03/1946.


A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS SAMPSON DD-394

The Tin Can Sailor, July 2000

William T. Sampson served during the Civil War and the Spanish-American War and held some of the highest posts in the U.S. Navy. The DD-394 was the second destroyer to honor Admiral Sampson. She was launched on 16 April 1938 and was commissioned on 19 August 1938. She saw early service in the North Atlantic as a neutrality patrol ship along the East Coast and into the northern waters of Newfoundland and Iceland. Following service in the Caribbean, she was transferred to the West Coast where she was joined in San Diego by the SOMERS (DD-381) and WARRINGTON (DD-383). The SAMPSON, WARRINGTON, and MARYLAND (BB-46) steamed west for operations out of Pearl Harbor in April 1940, but by the end of June, she was headed back to the states and the Norfolk Navy Yard. She was in the Caribbean at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Following Pearl Harbor, she continued to patrol the Caribbean until July 1941 when she steamed north to Newport, Rhode Island. On 5 August, she and the AUGUSTA (CA-31), TUSCALOOSA (CA-37), McDOUGAL (DD-358), MOFFETT (DD-362), WINSLOW (DD-359), and MADISON (DD-425) escorted President Roosevelt to Argentia, Newfoundland, for the Atlantic Charter meeting. In September, her duties were more routine, as she escorted the convoy carrying the first troops and equipment to Iceland. On convoy duty again with the WARRINGTON in October, the SAMPSON patrolled off Newport, Rhode Island, and then steamed south, bound ultimately for the Pacific war zone. On 25 January 1942, the SAMPSON joined the search for survivors of the submarine S-26 (SS-131) sunk in 290 feet of water following a surface collision with PC-460 in Panama Bay. She then operated out of Balboa, patrolling the waters off South America.

By May 1943, she was escorting troop ship convoys to Noumea, New Caledonia, and again with the WARRINGTON put into Pearl Harbor on 20 July. The two destroyers cleared Pearl Harbor escorting army troop ships bound for Australia. In August, the SAMPSON began operating alternately out of Noumea and Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands. On the night of 2 and 3 October 1943, while on escort duty, she contacted an enemy submarine on the surface, forcing it to submerge with her gunfire. She then dropped depth charges that produced a heavy oil slick.

On 15 March 1944, the SAMPSON joined Task Force 37 cleared Espiritu Santo as part of the screen for the escort carriers NATOMA BAY (CVE-62) and MANILA BAY (CVE-61). The force, which included the NEW MEXICO (BB-40), MISSISSIPPI (BB-41), IDAHO (BB-42), TENNESSEE (BB-43), and the WARRINGTON, moved on for a strike against Kavieng, New Ireland, and to support the 4th Marine Regiment=s landing on Emirau Island on 19 and 20 March. She stayed with the NATOMA BAY, the STERETT (DD-407), and LANG (DD-399) off Emirau through the end of the month and then went on to escort a convoy to Espiritu Santo.

On 11 April, she picked up the armed guard from the merchant ship TITAN, which was stranded on Cook Reef and transferred them to the CELTIC in Efate, New Hebrides. She then headed for Port Purvis, Borgen Bay, New Britain, and, finally, Guadalcanal for five days on patrol off Lunga Point. Various escort missions took her up to 11 May, when she joined the 7th Fleet. Nine days later, she became the flagship of Rear Admiral W. M. Fechteler, Commander, Task Force 77. On 25 May, Major General Horace H. Fuller, commander of the 41st Army Division, boarded the SAMPSON, which then led her attack force to Biak Island for the landings at Bosnik.

The destroyer was on her way to the states by late June and arrived in Brooklyn on 4 July. On 24 July, she left Boston for Norfolk to pick up a convoy bound for Bizerte, Tunisia, and on 19 August, returned with a westbound convoy. The SAMPSON continued convoy escort duty crisscrossing the Atlantic from the East Coast to Bizerte, Palermo, Sicily, and finally, Oran, Algeria, where she ended the year. Three more convoys to Oran and back took her into May 1945, when she returned to Boston. She put to sea on 1 July, stopped at Annapolis on the 3rd, and then sailed for Guantanamo Bay, Gonaives, Haiti, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the SOMERS, SAVANNAH (CL-42), CINCINNATI (CL-6), RALEIGH (CL-7), and MARBLEHEAD (CL-12).

On 13 September, she left Guantanamo Bay for the last time and headed north for Philadelphia where she tied up next to the JOUETT (DD-396). There, decommissioning ceremonies for the SAMPSON took place at 1100 on 1 November 1945. She was sold for scrap a year later.

USS SAMPSON DD-394 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, April 2020

The second Sampson (DD-394) was laid down on 8 April 1936 by the Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine; launched on 16 April 1938; sponsored by Mrs. Louisa Smith Thayer; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 19 August 1938, Comdr. W. Granat in command.

Following shakedown in European waters in October and November, Sampson returned to Boston where she was assigned to the Battle Force of the United States Fleet.

Sampson sailed from Boston on 8 March 1939 to take part in combined fleet maneuvers in waters off Cuba and Puerto Rico. She returned from this duty to Yorktown, Va., on 12 April and stood out from Hampton Roads on 20 April and headed for the United States west coast. She arrived at San Diego on 12 May 1939 and spent the next year in fleet tactics along the western seaboard from that base, taking part in the combined battle practice and maneuvers of the Battle Force off the Hawaiian Islands from 1 April to 20 June 1940. She cleared San Diego on 5 July to base her operations from Norfolk where she arrived on the 20th. She then cruised through the Caribbean Sea, from 14 November to 15 December, transporting a government mission which was compiling an economic survey of the British West Indies.

Sampson then continued operations out of Norfolk, engaged in Neutrality Patrol along the eastern seaboard to various ports of the Caribbean Sea, and steamed as far north as Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. On 3 September 1941, she got underway from Boston Harbor to escort convoys and to search for enemy submarines in shipping lanes running from Newfoundland to Iceland. She arrived at Hvalfjordur Fjord, Iceland, on 16 September and cleared that port on 23 October in the escort screen of a merchant convoy which reached Boston on 4 November.

With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war, Sampson patrolled, with Warrington (DD-383), off Newport from 23 December 1941 to 12 January 1942 when the two destroyers set course for the Canal Zone. Sampson arrived at Balboa on 17 January to join the Southeast Pacific Forces based there. She took part in the search, from 25 to 29 January, to locate submarine S-26 (SS-131) which had been sunk in 290 feet of water the night of 24 January by a surface collision with PC-460, 12 miles west of San Jose Island in Panama Bay.

On 1 February, she sailed from Balboa in the escort for twelve troopships. On 12 February, she broke off from the convoy to inspect Marquesa Island. She arrived at Bora Bora, Society Islands, on 18 February and patrolled a station off Teavanui Harbor until 9 March when she set course, in company with cruiser Trenton, for Panama, and reached Balboa on 23 March. Sampson spent the next year in a series of coastal patrol sweeps from Balboa to waters off South America, making calls at such ports as Guayaquil, Ecuador; Valparaiso, Chile; and Callao, Peru. She varied this service with infrequent escort voyages from Balboa to the Society and Galapagos Islands.

Sampson returned from her last cruise along the South American coast to Balboa, on 7 May 1943, and cleared port on 23 May as one of the escorts for a troopship convoy which reached Great Roads, Noumea, New Caledonia, on 13 June. The next day, she sailed for Bora Bora, Society Islands, and returned to Noumea with a convoy of troopships on 8 July. Two days later, she set course for a point of rendezvous off Pago Pago, American Samoa; met destroyer Warrington; thence proceeded to Pearl Harbor where she arrived on the 20th.

On 27 July, the two destroyers cleared Pearl Harbor escorting four Army troopships bound for Australia and reached Sydney on 8 August. She got underway the next day and arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia, on 12 August 1943. During the following months, Sampson alternately based her operations at Noumea and Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands, and made frequent escort voyages to Guadalcanal, or Purvis Bay, Florida, Solomon Islands. On the night of 2 and 3 October, while escorting a convoy from Noumea to Espiritu Santo, she fired at an enemy submarine and, after that vessel submerged, dropped depth charges that produced a heavy oil slick.

On 15 March 1944, Sampson cleared Espiritu Santo as one of four destroyers screening the escort carriers, Natoma Bay (CVE-62) and Manila Bay (CVE-61). Later that day, four battleships and more destroyers joined the formation. This force struck Kavieng, New Ireland, and nearby airfields in an air-sea bombardment on 20 March while the 4th Marine Regiment made an unopposed landing to occupy Emirau Island, a base from which the north coast of New Ireland could be kept under surveillance. After guarding the escort carriers while they launched strikes against Kavieng and providing air cover for reinforcement convoys to Emirau, Sampson joined a convoy at Port Purvis, Florida Island, and escorted it to Espiritu Santo. On 11 April, she received the armed guard crew from the merchant ship, Titan, stranded on Cook Reef and transferred them to Celtic in Havannah Harbor, Efate, New Hebrides.

Sampson cleared Havannah Harbor on 17 April and, after escorting Ataseosa to Kukum Beach, arrived off Tenaru Beach of Guadalcanal on the 20th, joining troopships which reached Borgen Bay, New Britain Island, on 25 April. After guarding one more convoy shuttling troops between Guadalcanal and Borgen Bay, she touched at Purvis Bay; then steamed to Milne Bay, New Guinea, where she arrived on 11 May.

There she joined the 7th Fleet; and, while at Cape Sudest, New Guinea, on 20 May, became the flagship of Rear Admiral W. M. Fechteler, Commander, Task Force 77. She shifted to Humboldt Bay, Hollandia, New Guinea, on 22 May. Three days later, Major General Horace H. Fuller, the commander of the 41st United States Army Division, came on board Sampson with his staff. Rear Admiral Fechteler commanded the naval elements and the amphibious aspects of the landing to be made at Bosnik on Biak Island, Schouten Islands, while Major General Fuller directed the ground forces. The task force sailed that evening and Sampson arrived off Bosnik with her attack force before daybreak of 27 May.

Following naval bombardment, the first wave of troops landed. Three cruisers sent 6-inch shells onto an enemy airstrip to the west of the beachhead while the destroyers took on targets near the landing area.

In the late afternoon of 27 May, four twin-engined enemy planes came in and were taken under fire by antiaircraft guns, both afloat and ashore. Two burst into flames and crashed, and one flew off smoking badly. The pilot of a fourth enemy plane, which also trailed smoke, was attempting to crash into Sampson when antiaircraft fire knocked off a part of its wing. This raider passed over Sampson’s bridge but hit the water with its wing tip and catapulted into SC-699. The submarine chaser was engulfed in flames, but soon had the fires under control. At 1707, Sampson departed Bosnik with eight LST’s and several other ships and arrived in Humboldt Bay the next day.

Sampson got underway from Cape Sudest on 5 June, and touched the Samoan and Society Islands, en route to Cristobal, Canal Zone, where she reported for duty to the United States Atlantic Fleet on 25 June. Three days later, she sailed as the escort for troopship, General Tasker H. Bliss, and arrived at the New York Navy Yard on 4 July. She became flagship of Capt. H. T. Read, Commander, Task Force 63, on 19 July, and shifted to Hampton Roads, Va., on 21 July in preparation for transatlantic, convoy-escort duty. Three days later, she sailed as flagship of the escort for Convoy UGS-49 which reached Bizerte, Tunisia, on 13 August. She returned to New York, guarding a westward convoy, on 8 September 1944, and made four subsequent round trips to the Mediterranean, finally arriving at Boston on 19 May 1945.

Sampson remained in the Boston Navy Yard until 1 July when she sailed for the Chesapeake. She arrived at Annapolis, Md., on 3 July to embark midshipmen for a training cruise, and put to sea on the 7th with a task group for battle practice off Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Virginia Capes until 30 July when she arrived at Hampton Roads. She again sailed from Norfolk on 19 August for training operations out of Guantanamo Bay and returned from this cruise to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 16 September for inactivation overhaul. She was decommissioned on 1 November 1945, her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 November, and she was sold for scrap on 29 March 1946.

Sampson earned one battle star for World War II service.