Hull Number: DD-53
Launch Date: 02/11/1915
Commissioned Date: 08/07/1915
Decommissioned Date: 06/05/2022
Call Sign: NJA
Class: O’BRIEN
O’BRIEN Class
Data for USS O'Brien (DD-51) as of 1921
Length Overall: 305' 3"
Beam: 31' 1"
Draft: 9' 5 1/2"
Standard Displacement: 1,020 tons
Full Load Displacement: 1,171 tons
Fuel capacity: 306 tons/oil
Armament:
Four 4″/50 caliber guns
Four 21″ twin torpedo tubes
Complement:
8 Officers
8 Chief Petty Officers
90 Enlisted
Propulsion:
4 Boilers
2 Parsons Turbines: 16,275 horsepower
Highest speed on trials: 29.2 knots
Namesake: JOHN ANCRUM WINSLOW
JOHN ANCRUM WINSLOW
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2016
John Ancrum Winslow, born in 1811 in Wilmington, N.C., became a midshipman in 1827. While serving at Tobasco during the Mexican War, he was commended for gallantry in action by Commodore Matthew Perry.
The outbreak of the Civil War found Winslow serving ashore as commanding officer of the 2d Lighthouse District. After Flag Officer A. H. Foote relieved Comdr. John Rodgers in command of the Western Flotilla, he requested that Winslow be sent west to assist him as executive officer. At Cairo, III., Winslow labored to fit out and man gunboats for service on the Mississippi and its tributaries. In October 1861, he assumed command of Benton at St. Louis. As that deep-draft gunboat was steaming down river to Cairo, she ran aground on a sandbar. While attempting to refloat the ship, Winslow was injured by a flying chain link and forced to return home late in the year to recover. When he was able to return to duty in the summer of 1862, Winslow was given comparatively minor assignments. He contracted malaria, became discontented, and asked to be reassigned to other duty.
Detached from the Mississippi Squadron, Winslow returned to his home in Roxbury, Mass., early in November and was confined to bed there for a month attempting to regain his health. On 5 December, orders arrived directing him to proceed via New York to the Azores where he was to assume command of screw sloop Kearsarge. Two days later, he went to New York where he embarked in Vanderbilt for passage to Fayal. However, when he reached that island on Christmas Eve, he found that Kearsarge had sailed to Spain for repairs; and he was forced to remain at Fayal until spring. When the screw sloop finally returned early in April 1863, he assumed command.
In Kearsarge, he cruised among the Azores seeking Confederate commerce raider Alabama until autumn when he shifted to European waters. At Ferrol, Spain, Winslow learned that CSS Florida, was at Brest, France, undergoing overhaul; and he promptly sailed for that port to prevent her from slipping out to sea again. While keeping track of the progress of the repair work on the Southern warship through spies, he also made runs along the coast of western Europe, checking on rumors of other Confederate raiders in the area.
In January 1864, Kearsarge returned to Cadiz for naval stores and repairs; and, while she was away from Brest, Florida put to sea on 18 February. When Kearsarge returned and learned that the quarry had escaped, she shifted to Calais, France, where CSS Rappahannock was moored. On 12 June, Winslow received a telegram informing him that Alabama was at Cherbourg. He hastened there in Kearsarge and, on 19 June, in an epic battle off that port, won a complete victory which gained him promotion to commodore.
Advanced to rear admiral in 1870, Winslow commanded the Pacific Fleet from that year to 1872. Shortly after his retirement, he died at Boston on 29 September 1873.
Disposition:
Sold 06/30/1936. Scrapped.