USS ROWAN DD-405

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS ROWAN DD-405

The Tin Can Sailor, October 1998

Like many of the large navy yards in 1936, Norfolk was assigned to construct one of the new Benhams. The sprawling yard would build USS ROWAN. The new destroyer was named for Vice Admiral Stephen C. Rowan, whose extensive career in the middle and last half of the Nineteenth Century included a billet as commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard.

DD-405 was laid down in the summer of 1937 and launched just short of a year later. The new destroyer was commissioned on September 23, 1939. A quick shakedown cruise was followed by a deployment to the Pacific.

By 1941, however, the situation in the Atlantic had deteriorated and ROWAN was shifted East to meet the developing threat. She served with the Neutrality Patrol in the prewar years and screened the “secret” convoy that transferred 22,000 British troops in American transports from Canada to the Persian Gulf in the days before America’s official participation in the war. Hectic convoy duty consumed the destroyer’s first year of war service.

ROWAN was assigned to the most hazardous convoy duty available in the early war years; with Task Force 99, the new destroyer was tasked with screening convoys routed though Reykjavik, Iceland, to Murmansk and Arkangle in the Soviet Union. Characteristic of ROWAN’s superb performance as a convoy escort were her actions in the defense of convoy PQ-17.

ROWAN met her charges just as German reconnaissance aircraft approached. The planes were in for a surprise. A Luftwaffe bomber fell to the guns of the destroyer and, for the first time along that portion of the convoy’s route, no ships were lost. The effect was not to continue, however. By the time ROWAN was detached to help block a rumored sortie by German heavy naval forces, two ships were destroyed. Eleven ships reached Russia in the face of a determined enemy.

The invasion of North Africa, code-named “Torch,” required the movement of hundreds of thousands of tons of supplies and hosts of men. Trained escort craft were in short supply, so ROWAN was reassigned to the invasion fleet. The destroyer aided in stopping a potentially dangerous counter attack by Vichy French naval forces from Casablanca, then went on to screen the transports from enemy submarine activity.

The following summer found ROWAN screening the invasion fleet intent on opening a second front in Europe. Sicily had already fallen and the Allies were aiming at the Italian mainland. Salerno would be the landing site, and ROWAN succeeded in fending off enemy forces intent on wrecking the force. The destroyer’s luck ran out, however.

DD-405 prepared to escort the empty freighters and transports. In the first few minutes of September 11, 1943, ROWAN spotted German E-boats. The fast torpedo craft immediately attacked the convoy, only to be chased off by the destroyer. As she returned to her convoy, the enemy attacked again, and ROWAN turned to block the new threat. Too late, lookouts aboard DD-405 spotted a torpedo in the water, fired from just over a mile away. ROWAN was hit in her port quarter and, moments later, the after magazine exploded. Only seventy-three of ROWAN’s crew survived the catastrophic blast.

USS ROWAN earned five battle stars for her service in World War II.

USS ROWAN DD-405 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2015

The third Rowan (DD-405) was laid down on 25 June 1937 by the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Va.; launched 5 May 1938; sponsored by Miss Elizabeth H. Rowan, great granddaughter of Vice Admiral Rowan; and commissioned 23 September 1939, Lt. Comdr. B. R. Harrison, Jr., in command.

After shakedown in the Caribbean, Rowan departed Norfolk on 17 May 1940 for duty in the Pacific, based at San Diego. During the spring of 1941, however, U.S. involvement in the war in Europe increased. In May the limits of the Neutrality Patrol were extended and the Navy gradually expanded its responsibilities for protecting transatlantic convoys.

At the end of the month, Rowan was transferred to the Atlantic and assigned to the Neutrality Patrol. Through the spring and summer, she ranged from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. Then, in early November, she was ordered to escort Convoy WS-12X, carrying British reinforcements for the Near and Far East, from Halifax to Capetown.

Sailing from Halifax on 10 November, she reached Capetown on 9 December, 2 days after the United States entered World War II. In January 1942, she returned to the east coast of the United States and resumed convoy duty in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. On 30 April she sailed east from Halifax to escort another convoy to the midocean rendezvous point. Upon departing the convoy on 10 May, she proceeded to Hvalfjordur, Iceland, and on the 11th joined TF 99, which was acting as a part of the British Home Fleet based at Hvalfjordur and Scapa Flow.

At midmonth, she completed a “north about circuit” to Seyðisfjörður, whence she patrolled, with TF 99, 150 miles east of the routes of convoys PQ-16 and QP-12 to intercept any German units which might sortie from Norway to destroy the convoys. The first convoy was bound for the north of Russia, the second on return from there.

On the 29th, TF 99 put into Scapa Flow and on 12 June got underway to return to Iceland and repeat its previous mission for convoys PQ-17 and QP-13. The latter had lost four merchantmen on its northward run and would lose, on its return, five more before reaching Reykjavik. Berlin had ordered the former, comprising 33 merchantmen, annihilated by a combined air-surface-submarine operation, “Russelsprung”.

PQ-17 departed Iceland on 27 June. Two days later the cruiser covering force, to which Rowan was attached, moved around to Seydisfjordur, whence they sortied on 1 July. On 2 July, Rowan was detached and assigned to PQ-17. That convoy, shadowed by German reconnaissance planes despite heavy fog, had already lost two freighters; one grounded, the other damaged by ice and ordered back.

As Rowan approached the convoy, the Luftwaffe moved in. Rowan shot down one of the attackers. No ships were lost. On the 3d, the weather protected the convoy from a bomber attack. Early on the 4th, however, the enemy planes began to penetrate through the fog. A Liberty ship went down shortly after 0300. The raids continued. By late afternoon four more ships had been hit, two of which sank.

Shortly thereafter, the convoy was ordered scattered and the escorts sent to support the cruisers in an anticipated engagement with German heavy units which were rumored to have left the fjords of Norway. The merchantmen of PQ-17 steamed north, independently. Eleven ships got through to Russia.

Rowan, ordered to rejoin the cruisers on the 4th, returned to Iceland with that force on the 7th. On the 13th, her division DesDiv 16, was relieved and on the 14th she headed back to the United States. Overhaul at Boston followed and in mid-August she resumed convoy escort duty with a run to Panama. In September, she trained and conducted patrols out of Norfolk, Va., and Portland, Maine; then, in October joined TF 34 for Operation “Torch,” the invasion of North Africa.

On 7 November, she arrived off Fedhala with the assault force. Through the 9th she screened the transports. On the 10th, she patrolled off Casablanca and participated in action against Vichy ships attempting to turn back the invasion. On the 11th, she resumed screening in the transport area, and on the 12th she got underway to return to the United States.

Between December 1942 and April 1943, Rowan escorted two reinforcement and resupply convoys to Casablanca. On the second trip out, UGS-6, five merchantmen were lost to a wolfpack in 4 days, 13 to 17 March. In May the destroyer completed her last transatlantic run. At the end of the month she joined TF 80 at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, and for the next month conducted ASW patrols and escorted convoys along the North African coast.

On 10 July, the invasion of Sicily began. On the 14th Rowan arrived off the coast in the screen of a reinforcement convoy and commenced patrols off Gela. After the 20th, she shifted around to the northern shore and assumed patrol and escort work in the Palermo area. On the 26th she added shore bombardment, against enemy positions between Cefalu and Stefano di Camastra, and into August she supported the “leap frog” landings along the coast. She then returned to North Africa to prepare for the landings on the Italian mainland at Salerno.

On 9 September, Rowan entered the Gulf of Salerno in the screen of the Southern Attack Force. That day and the next as the assault force and supplies were landed at Paestum, she screened the transports and freighters. Late on the night of the 10th, she headed back to Oran with the emptied ships. Shortly after midnight, German E-boats attacked. Rowan pursued and fired, then, as her quarry pulled away, ceased firing and changed course to rejoin the convoy.

Within 5 minutes a new contact was made, range less than 3,000 yards. Again she changed course, to avoid torpedoes and bring her guns into position. As the range decreased to 2,000 yards, Rowan was hit by a torpedo. She sank in less than a minute, taking 202 of her 273 officers and men with her.

Rowan (DD-405) earned five battle stars during World War II.