DD-648 - Tin Can Sailors

Hull Number: DD-648

Launch Date: 02/28/1943

Commissioned Date: 04/16/1943

Class: GLEAVES

GLEAVES Class

Data for USS Gleaves (DD-423) as of 1945

Length Overall: 348’ 4"

Beam: 36’ 1"

Draft: 13’ 6"

Standard Displacement: 1,630 tons

Full Load Displacement: 2,525 tons

Fuel capacity: 2,928 barrels

Armament:

Four 5″/38 caliber guns
Two 40mm twin anti-aircraft mounts
Two 21″ quintuple torpedo tub

Complement:

16 Officers
260 Enlisted

Propulsion:

4 Boilers
2 Westinghouse Turbines: 50,000 horsepower

Highest speed on trials: 37.4 knots

Namesake: DANIEL TURNER

DANIEL TURNER

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, January 2024

Daniel Turner, probably born at Richmond on Staten Island in 1794, was appointed a midshipman in the Navy on 1 January 1808. Following brief duty at the New York Naval Station, he served in the frigate Constitution on the North Atlantic Station. On 8 June 1812, he received orders to Norwich, Conn., where he took command of the gunboats located there.

On 14 March 1813, two days after receiving his commission as a lieutenant, Turner was sent to Sackets Harbor, N.Y., located on the shores of Lake Ontario. There, he took command of Niagara, a brig in Oliver Hazard Perry’s squadron. However, just before the Battle of Lake Erie, he relinquished command to Capt. Jesse D. Elliott and assumed command of Caledonia.

That little brig played an important role in the Battle of Lake Erie on 10 September 1813 because, at one point in the action, her two 24-pounder long guns were the only ones in Perry’s flotilla capable of returning the distant fire of the three heaviest British ships then in the process of pounding Perry’s flagship Lawrence. For his part in the U.S. victory at Lake Erie, Lt. Turner received Perry’s praise, a vote of thanks and a medal from Congress, and a sword from the state of New York.

In the summer of 1814, Turner succeeded to the command of schooner Scorpion, and he cruised Lakes Erie and Huron, supporting army operations around Detroit and blockading British forces at the Nottawasaga River and Lake Simcoe. On 6 September 1814, Turner and his command were captured by the British when he brought Scorpion alongside the former U.S. schooner Tigress which, unbeknownst to him, had been captured a few days earlier. After a period of imprisonment at Mackinac, Lt. Turner returned to the United States in exchange for a British prisoner of war.

Between 1815 and 1817, Turner cruised the Mediterranean in the frigate Java commanded by Oliver Hazard Perry, his old superior on the Great Lakes. During that deployment, Java visited Algiers and Tripoli in a show of American naval strength calculated to impress the Barbary pirates and intimidate them into honoring their treaties with the United States. In 1817, Java returned to Newport, R.I., to be laid up.

Between 1819 and 1824, Turner returned to sea in the schooner Nonsuch attached to a squadron commanded again by Oliver Hazard Perry. In addition to hunting West Indian pirates, his ship sailed up the Orinoco River to carry Perry on a diplomatic mission to the Venezuelan government under Simon Bolivar. During the return downriver, however, Perry and many of the crew contracted yellow fever. Turner was close at hand when his mentor died at Trinidad on 23 August 1819. During the remaining years of Turner’s assignment to Nonsuch, his ship worked along the east coast of the U.S., patrolled in the West Indies to suppress piracy, and made a brief cruise to the Mediterranean in 1824.

Following shore duty at Boston, Turner returned to sea in 1827 for a three-year assignment with the West India Squadron, as the commanding officer of Erie. In 1830, he came ashore again for three years at the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard.

Promoted to captain on 3 March 1835, Turner spent a long period awaiting orders before returning to sea in 1839 in command of Constitution. He sailed the Pacific Station in “Old Ironsides,” until he was relieved in 1841. From 1843 to 1846, he commanded the U.S. squadron that operated along the Brazilian coast. From that duty, he reported ashore again as Commandant, Portsmouth Navy Yard. Capt. Turner died suddenly on 4 February 1850 at Philadelphia, and he was buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.

Disposition:

Sunk 01/03/1944, by Internal Explosion, Ambrose Channel, New York Harbor.

TCS Ship History

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS TURNER DD-648

The Tin Can Sailor, January 2005

The second TURNER (DD‑648) was launched on 28 February 1943 at Kearny, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. She was commissioned on 15 April 1943 at the New York Navy Yard, with Lieutenant Commander Henry S. Wygant in command.On 22 June, she left New York on the first of several Atlantic crossings screening a convoys bound for Casablanca, French Morocco, and a convoy to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

On the night of 23 October 1943, while serving as an advance ASW escort with Convoy GUS‑18, she picked up an unidentified surface contact on her SG radar. At 1943, about 11 minutes after the initial radar contact, the TURNER’s lookouts spotted a German submarine, at 500 yards, running on the surface, her decks awash. The destroyer turned hard left and opened fire with her 5‑inch, 40‑mm, and 20‑mm guns, all of which hit the U‑boat. As the TURNER prepared to ram her, the submarine dove, and the destroyer went after her with depth‑charges. Three charges appeared to be right on target, and shortly after the three charges exploded, a fourth explosion rocked the ship. The concussion caused her to lose power to her SG and FD radars, to the main battery, and to her sound gear for some 15 minutes. She continued to search for evidence of a sinking, and at about 2017, made a contact. Not long thereafter, her bridge watch sighted what appeared to be a submarine lying low in the water and sinking stern first, but she lost the contact before she could identify it when she had to move out of the way of another ship in the convoy. A subsequent search with the help of the STURTEVANT (DE‑239) turned up nothing. The next day, the two escorts rejoined the convoy, and the crossing continued peacefully. She arrived in New York on 7 November.

Her third and final convoy to the Mediterranean began on 23 November, and she was homeward bound in late December. On 1 January 1944, she headed back to New York, arriving at 0330 on 3 January 1944, and anchored off Rockaway Point, Long Island, to await orders. At 0618, as many of the crew were at breakfast, the destroyer was shaken by an explosion that gouged a hole in her port side and ripped up the main deck.

Observations made by the crew of the USS SWASEY (DE-248), which reached the TURNER shortly after the explosion, were recorded in her war diary. “Brilliant flames, bright yellowish in color, billowed out of this hole and through the main deck and were blown by the wind across the entire bridge superstructure which by this time was also on fire.” The initial explosion had blown away the Number 2, 5-inch gun turret, mangled turret Number 1, and had sent a “volcano” of flames and rocketing projectiles into the air. “The bridge superstructure was badly twisted and torn and appeared to have been blown upward and aft,” the SWASEY’s report continued. By 0645, she was twenty yards from the burning ship with her hoses turned on the fires. Her motor whaleboat had joined several Coast Guard vessels alerted to the explosion by the look-out station on Sandy Hook. Ignoring the danger of fire and explosion, the rescuers fought freezing wind, sleet, and burning debris to pull survivors from the ship and surrounding icy waters.

The SWASEY moved around the TURNER to her starboard side where she found another gaping hole “abreast of number two turret, approximately ten feet wide at the edge of the main deck” and tapering in a “V” to the waterline. “The plate from the hole had been peeled forward, outward, and downward,” and a man, dazed and bleeding badly from a head wound, was in the water clinging to the twisted metal. “He was picked up by one of the small boats.”

All the while, there were minor explosions within the ship. As the SWASEY was returning to the port side, at 0650, a violent explosion sent the TURNER into a 16-degree list to starboard and “showered the SWASEY’s decks with flaming debris.¼ This explosion cleared the entire forward housing, which toppled over the starboard side.”

Fuel oil was pouring from the hole in the TURNER’s port side, and the SWASEY ordered the small boats to get away from the ship. The war diary recorded the following horrific events. “The oil flowing from the port side promptly ignited and was carried aft by the wind. The paint along her entire side caught fire, running across the decks and up her after deck housing. Depth charges along the side in K-gun racks began to burn.” Onlookers watched helplessly as 5-inch ammunition began to explode joining the constant, smaller 20-mm and 40-mm explosions.

Finally, the diary continues, “At 0750 a terrific explosion occurred aft of the Number 2 smokestack, and the TURNER immediately capsized to starboard and sank, except for a small portion of her bow which remained floating about three feet above water.” Her bow remained above water until 0827 when she disappeared completely taking with her 15 officers, including her captain, and 123 crewmen. The SWASEY dropped a marker buoy where the TURNER went down.

The injured crewmen from the TURNER were taken to the hospital at Sandy Hook. There, the lives of many of the men were saved by Lieutenant Commander F. A. Erickson, USCG, who flew a Coast Guard Sikorsky HNS-1 helicopter, carrying two cases of blood plasma lashed to its floats, from New York to Sandy Hook. The flight was the first use of a helicopter in a life saving role.

The TURNER was struck from the navy’s list on 8 April 1944.

Ship History

USS TURNER DD-648 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, January 2024

The second Turner (DD-648) was laid down on 15 November 1942 at Kearny, N.J., by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co.; launched on 28 February 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Louis E. Denfeld, wife of Rear Adm. Louis E. Denfeld; and commissioned on 15 April 1943 at the New York Navy Yard, Lt. Cmdr. Henry S. Wygant, Jr., in command.

Turner completed outfitting at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., and then conducted shakedown and antisubmarine training out of Casco Bay, Maine, until early June 1943. On the 9th, she returned to New York to prepare for her first assignment, a three-day training cruise with the newly commissioned aircraft carrier Bunker Hill (CV-17). Returning to New York on 22 June, she departed again the next day on her first real wartime assignment, service in the screen of a transatlantic convoy. First, she sailed with a portion of that convoy to Norfolk, Va., arriving that same day. On the 24th, the convoy departed Hampton Roads and shaped a course eastward across the Atlantic. After an uneventful voyage, she saw her convoy into port at Casablanca, French Morocco, on 18 July. She departed with a return convoy on the 23rd and arrived back in New York on 9 August. Later that month, she was in the screen of a convoy to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, making a brief stop at Hampton Roads along the way. On the return trip, she rendezvoused with HMS Victorious and accompanied the British carrier to Norfolk.

During the first two weeks of September 1943, Turner conducted antisubmarine training at Casco Bay, Maine, and then returned to New York to prepare for her second transatlantic voyage. On 21 September, the destroyer headed south to Norfolk. She arrived there on the 23rd and, the following day, headed out across the Atlantic with her convoy. After an 18-day passage, during which she made one depth-charge attack on a sound contact, Turner arrived at Casablanca on 12 October. Four days later, she departed again and headed for Gibraltar to join another convoy. The warship reached the strategic base on the 17th and, after two days in port, stood out to join the screen of convoy GUS-18.

On the night of 23 October 1943, Turner was acting as an advance antisubmarine escort for the convoy when she picked up an unidentified surface contact on her SG radar. At 1943, about 11 minutes after the initial radar contact, Turner’s lookouts made visual contact with what proved to be a German submarine running on the surface, decks awash, at about 500 yards distance. Almost simultaneously, Turner came hard left and opened fire with her 5-inch, 40-millimeter, and 20-millimeter guns. During the next few seconds, the destroyer scored one 5-inch hit on the U-boat’s conning tower as well as several 40-millimeter and 20-millimeter hits there and elsewhere. The submarine began to dive immediately and deprived Turner of any opportunity to ram her. While the U-boat made her dive, however, Turner began a depth charge attack. She fired two charges from her port K-gun battery, and both appeared to hit the water just above the submerged U-boat. Then, as the destroyer swung around above the U-boat, Turner rolled a single depth charge off her stern. Soon after the three depth charges exploded, Turner crewmen heard a fourth explosion, the shock from which caused the destroyer to lose power to her SG and FD radars, to the main battery, and to her sound gear. It took her at least 15 minutes to restore power entirely.

Meanwhile, she began a search for evidence to corroborate a sinking or regain contact with the target. At about 2017, she picked up another contact on the SG radar, located about 1,500 yards off the port beam. Turner came left and headed toward the contact. Not long thereafter, her bridge watch sighted an object lying low in the water. Those witnesses definitely identified the object as a submarine which appeared to be sinking by the stern.

Unfortunately, Turner had to break contact with the object to avoid a collision with another of the convoy’s escorts. By the time she was able to resume her search, the object had disappeared. Turner and escort vessel Sturtevant (DE-239) remained in the area and conducted further searches for the submarine or for proof of her sinking but failed in both instances. All that can be said is that probably the destroyer heavily damaged an enemy submarine and may have sunk her. No conclusive evidence exists to support the latter conclusion.

On the 24th, the two escorts rejoined the convoy, and the crossing continued peacefully. When the convoy divided itself into two segments according to destination on 4 November 1943, Turner took station as one of the escorts for the Norfolk-bound portion. Two days later, she saw her charges safely into port and then departed to return to New York where she arrived on 7 November.

Following ten days in port, the warship conducted antisubmarine exercises briefly at Casco Bay before returning to Norfolk to join another transatlantic convoy. She departed Norfolk with her third convoy on 23 November 1943 and saw it safely across the Atlantic. On 1 January 1944, near the end of the return voyage, that convoy split into two parts according to destination as Turner‘s previous one had done. Turner joined the New York-bound contingent and shaped a course for that port. She arrived off Ambrose Light late on 2 January and anchored.

Early the following morning, the destroyer suffered a series of shattering internal explosions. By 0650, she took on a 15-degree starboard list; and detonations, mostly in the ammunition stowage areas, continued to stagger the stricken destroyer. Then, at about 0750, a singularly violent explosion caused her to capsize and sink. The tip of her bow remained above water until about 0827 when she disappeared completely taking with her Cmdr. Wygant (a man known to his USNA classmates as “built of stern stuff, [with a] warm heart, and a generosity that expresses itself in every direction…”) and 14 officers and 123 crewmen.

After nearby ships picked up the survivors of the sunken destroyer, the injured were taken to the hospital at Sandy Hook. A U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HNS-1 flown by Lt. Cmdr. Frank A. Erickson, USCG, in the first use of a helicopter in a life-saving role, flew two cases of blood plasma, lashed to the helicopter’s floats, from New York to Sandy Hook, the plasma saving the lives of many of Turner’s injured sailors.

Turner’s name was stricken from the Navy Register on 8 April 1944.

Commanding Officer Date Assumed Command

Lt. Cmdr. Henry S. Wygant, Jr. 15 April 1943