A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History
USS MEREDITH DD-434
The Tin Can Sailor, July 1999
Jonathan Meredith was a sergeant in the Marine Corps who fought bravely, saved his lieutenant’s life, and was ultimately killed in the explosion of a gunboat off Tripoli in the early 1800s. The DD-434, the second ship to bear his name, was launched 24 April 1940 and was commissioned 1 March 1941.
Early in her career, the MEREDITH operated along the southern coast and then joined the neutrality patrol running between Iceland and the Denmark Straits. On 17 October 1941, she rescued survivors of torpedoed British steamer EMPIRE WAVE. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, she continued her escort and antisubmarine patrol duties in the North Atlantic until late January 1942 when she headed for the West Coast. There she joined the escort for the HORNET (CV-8) which carried Colonel Jimmy Doolittle’s bombers for their famous 18 April raid, the first carrier-based attack on Japan. She then operated out of Pearl Harbor, escorting fleet oilers bound for New Caledonia, patrolling the Bulari Passage, and escorting the sea plane tender TANGIER (AV-8) on her return to Pearl. Following a stint at gunnery and tactical exercises, she steamed for Samoa, arriving at Pago Pago on 30 August.
The MEREDITH next escorted Transport Force 2 to the Solomons with reinforcements that landed on Guadalcanal on 20 September. After patrol duty in the New Hebrides, she left Espiritu Santo for Guadalcanal on 12 October 1942. Her mission was to escort an emergency convoy of freighters with badly needed fuel and ammunition for the beleaguered marines at Henderson Field. She and the destroyer NICHOLAS (DD-449) were the sole escorts for the two cargo ships, each towing a barge loaded with gasoline and bombs; the PT-boat tender JAMESTOWN (AGP-3); and the fleet tug VIREO (ATO-144). They were off San
Cristobal Island on the morning of 15 October, when a Japanese scout plane sighted the convoy. Aware that an attack was imminent the convoy split. The NICHOLAS with the two freighters and the JAMESTOWN abandoned the mission. Before leaving, however, they transferred one of the barges to the VIREO, which continued on toward Guadalcanal with the MEREDITH.
The two ships had only a short time to wait before two enemy planes appeared overhead. The MEREDITH’s gunners successfully fought off their assaults but their accomplishment was followed by news that enemy warships were headed their way. The destroyer’s captain, Commander Harry E. Hubbard, ordered the tug to leave, but she clearly was unable to maintain the speed necessary to reach a safe distance. Finally, at noon, Hubbard ordered the VIREO’s crew to abandon her. The tug’s crew was safely aboard by 1215, and the MEREDITH was moving into position to fire a torpedo and sink the VIREO when the skies overhead filled with more than thirty planes raining bombs, torpedoes, and machine-gun fire on the destroyer. In a valiant effort, the MEREDITH’s gunners downed three of her attackers, but the onslaught was overpowering. The ship was torn apart and within minutes had slipped beneath the sea.
A few of the crew were able to reach the abandoned VIREO, perhaps one hundred more clung to rafts and floating wreckage. The ablest survivors remained in the water, leaving the limited space on the rafts to the wounded and dying among whom was the destroyer’s captain, Commander Hubbard. As the wounded died, men climbed from the water to take their places on the rafts, but that was only one of the horrors of their ordeal. The men in the water and even those on the rafts had to fight off sharks drawn by the scent of blood to the tiny fleet of rafts.
For a hellish three days and three nights, they drifted until finally, on 18 October, they were rescued by the destroyers GRAYSON (DD-435) and GWIN (DD-433) and the fleet tug SEMINOLE (AT-65). Only seventy-five officers and men survived the attack and the three desperate days adrift on the open sea.
The destroyermen lost numbered 185. Fifty-one of the VIREO’s crew were lost. Although the gasoline never reached the marines on Guadalcanal, their deaths were not entirely in vain. While the raiding planes concentrated on the MEREDITH, the NICHOLAS and her charges were able make it back safely to Espiritu Santo and the SEMINOLE retrieved the VIREO’s barge. One of fifteen destroyers lost to buy an American victory at Guadalcanal, the MEREDITH received one battle star for her service in World War II.
