DD-66 - Tin Can Sailors

Hull Number: DD-66

Launch Date: 12/05/2016

Commissioned Date: 01/24/2017

Decommissioned Date: 10/15/1945

Class: SAMPSON

SAMPSON Class

Data for USS Sampson (DD-63) as of 1921

Length Overall: 315' 3"

Beam: 30' 7"

Draft: 9' 6"

Standard Displacement: 1,111 tons

Full Load Displacement: 1,225 tons

Armament:

Four 4″/50 caliber guns
One 3″/23 caliber anti-aircraft gun
Four 21″ triple torpedo tubes

Complement:

8 Officers
8 Chief Petty Officers
90 Enlisted

Propulsion:

4 Boilers
2 Curtis Turbines: 17,696 horsepower

Highest speed on trials: 29.5 knots

Namesake: WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN

WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (Published 1980)

William Henry Allen—born in Providence, R.I., on 21 October 1784—was appointed a midshipman in the Navy on 28 April 1800. Between 1800 and 1807, he served successively in George Washington and Philadelphia. In 1807, he transferred to Chesapeake and, on 21 June, when that ship had her celebrated encounter with HMS Leopard, Allen was credited with firing the only gun discharged in her own defense by the American ship. By 1812, he was first lieutenant in United States and took part in the engagement with HMS Macedonian. At the conclusion of that capture, he was named to command the prize crew which took Macedonian into New York. In 1813, he took command of the brig Argus. On 24 August, he led his ship in the engagement with HMS Pelican during which battle he received mortal wounds. After Argils’ surrender, Allen was taken to the hospital at Mill Prison where he died on 18 August 1813. Allen was buried with full military honors at Andrew’s Churchyard.

Disposition:

Sold 9/26/1946 to Boston Metal Co. Inc., Baltimore, MD. Sale price $12,094.25.

Ship History

USS ALLEN DD-66 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (Published 1991)

The second Allen (Destroyer No.66) was laid down on 10 May 1915 at Bath, Maine, by the

Bath Iron Works; launched on 5 December 1916; sponsored by Miss Dorthea Dix Allen and Miss Harriet Allen Butler; and commissioned on 24 January 1917, Lt. Comdr. Samuel W. Bryant in command.

Over the next five months, Allen conducted patrol and escort duty along the eastern seaboard and in the West Indies. During that time, the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allies on 6 April. On 14 June, the destroyer put to sea from New York in the escort of one of the first convoys to take American troops to Europe. After seeing the convoy safely across the Atlantic, Allen joined other American destroyers at Queenstown, Ireland, and began duty patrolling against U-boats and escorting convoys on the last leg of their voyage to Europe. That duty included escort missions into both French and British ports. During her service at Queenstown, she reported engagements with German submarines on 10 separate occasions, but postwar checks of German records failed to substantiate even the most plausible of the supposed encounters. One of the last duties the destroyer performed in European waters came in December 1918 when she helped to escort George Washington–with President Woodrow Wilson embarked–into Brest, France, on the 13th. Following that mission, the destroyer returned to Queenstown, whence she departed on the day after Christmas, bound for home. Allen pulled into New York on 7 January 1919.

After voyage repairs, the destroyer resumed duty along the east coast and in the West Indies with the Atlantic Fleet. That duty continued until 22 June 1922 at which time she was placed out of commission, in reserve. She was placed back in commission three years later, on 23 June 1925. Allen spent almost three years as a training platform for naval reservists at Washington, D.C. In March of 1928, the destroyer returned to the Reserve Fleet and was berthed at Philadelphia. There she remained for more than 12 years. On 23 August 1940, Allen was recommissioned at Philadelphia, Lt. Comdr. Frederick P. Williams in command.

Following a brief period of service on the east coast, she was reassigned to the Pacific Fleet as a unit of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 80. By the time Allen returned to commission, the Pacific Fleet had been moved from its base on the west coast to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a gesture to “restrain” the Japanese. Therefore, Allen moved to the Hawaiian base whence she operated until the beginning of hostilities between the United States and Japan. On the morning of 7 December 1941, she was moored in East Loch to the northeast of Ford Island and just south of east of the hospital ship Solace (AH-5). During the Japanese attack on the harbor, she claimed to have assisted in downing three enemy planes. Following the attack, she began duty escorting ships between islands of the Hawaiian chain and patrolling the area for enemy ships – primarily submarines. She also made periodic round-trip voyages to the west coast. Such duty remained her occupation throughout World War II. In September 1945, the destroyer sailed from Hawaii to Philadelphia, where she was placed out of commission on 15 October 1945. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 November 1945, and she was sold to the Boston Metals Co., Baltimore, Md., on 26 September 1946 for scrapping.

Allen (DD-66) earned one battle star for World War II service.

TCS Ship History

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS ALLEN DD-66

The Tin Can Sailor, July 2001

The ALLEN (DD-66) was launched on 5 December 1916 by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, and was commissioned on 24 January 1917. She reported for duty with the DesRon, Atlantic Fleet, to patrol and escort convoys along the East Coast and in Cuban waters. On 14 June 1917, she sailed from New York as an escort for Troop Convoy Group 3, part of the first Troop Convoy of Expeditionary Forces from the United States to France. During the remainder of World War I, she operated with the destroyers based at Queenstown, Ireland, performing patrol and antisubmarine duty and escorting convoys. Early in 1918, while escorting convoy HE 7, the ALLEN and fellow destroyers DOWNES (DD-45) and BURROWS (DD-29) attacked enemy submarines with depth charges, chasing them away from the convoy. Later that year, she was one of the ships that assisted the sinking British ship GALWAY CASTLE. In December 1918, the ALLEN joined the escort for the WASHINGTON (CA-11) carrying President Woodrow Wilson to Brest, France.

Returning to the U.S. early in 1919, the ALLEN operated with the Atlantic Fleet along the eastern seaboard until placed out of commission on 22 June 1922. Recommissioned on 23 June 1925, she trained naval reservists of the District of Columbia until March 1928 when she again went out of commission at Philadelphia.

On 23 August 1940, the ALLEN was recommissioned. While others of her vintage, such as the CONWAY (DD-70), CONNER (DD-72), and STOCKTON (DD-73), were among the fifty destroyers transferred to Great Britain in exchange for naval bases, the ALLEN was ordered to join Destroyer Division 80 on the West Coast. In December 1940, she proceeded to Pearl Harbor, and on the morning of 7 December 1941, she was moored in East Loch, to the northeast of Ford Island and just southeast of the hospital ship SOLACE (AH-5). During the Japanese attack, Elliot R. Milliken was gun captain of the No. 6, 3-inch/.50-caliber gun. When a shell jammed in the gun, he gave no thought to his personal safety and forcibly rammed the fused projectile from the barrel of the gun, promptly putting it back in action. The destroyer went on to assist in splashing three enemy planes, sustaining neither casualties nor damage. The ALLEN remained on antisubmarine patrol in the Pearl Harbor Defensive Sea Area where, on 27 December, she rescued twelve of the crew from a merchant ship sunk by an enemy submarine.

As a unit of Destroyer Division 80, the ALLEN operated out of Pearl Harbor during 1942 and 1943, screening sorties of various ships and convoys, patrolling the Oahu picket line, and conducting gunnery and antisubmarine exercises. During the first week of June 1942, she sailed with the BREESE (DD-122) to a point between Oahu and Midway to assist in the transfer of the YORKTOWN (CV-5) survivors from the PORTLAND (CA-33), RUSSELL (DD-414), and MORRIS (DD-417). She took aboard four officers and ninety men and returned them to Pearl Harbor. Following a brief return to San Francisco in August 1942 and an escort run between Pearl Harbor and Midway in late October, she resumed patrol duties on the Hawaiian sea frontier.

The ALLEN left Pearl Harbor on 20 August 1945 and arrived at Philadelphia on 13 September. The oldest destroyer in the navy and the last high-forecastle, 1,000-ton destroyer in U.S. service, she was decommissioned on 15 October 1945 and sold for scrap on 26 September 1946.