| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSAllen |
| Namesake | LieutenantWilliam Henry Allen (1784–1813) |
| Builder | Bath Iron Works,Bath, Maine |
| Laid down | 10 May 1915 |
| Launched | 5 December 1916 |
| Commissioned |
|
| Decommissioned |
|
| Stricken | 1 November 1945 |
| Identification | DD-66 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap 26 September 1946. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Sampson-classdestroyer |
| Displacement | 1,111 tons (normal), 1,225 tons (full load) |
| Length | 315 ft 3 in (96.09 m) |
| Beam | 30 ft 7 in (9.32 m) |
| Draft | 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 29.5knots (54.6 km/h) |
| Complement | 99 officers and crew |
| Sensors & processing systems | Fitted with radar in WW-2, SC and SU type antennas seen mounted on ship by late 1942. |
| Armament |
|
USSAllen (DD-66) was aSampson-classdestroyer of theUnited States Navy launched in 1916. She was the second Navy ship named forLieutenantWilliam Henry Allen (1784–1813), a naval officer during theWar of 1812. She was the longest-serving destroyer on theNaval Vessel Register when she was sold in 1946 and was one of the few US Navy ships completed during World War I to serve in World War II.
The construction of six destroyers of theSampson-class for the US Navy was authorized in June 1914,[1] with a contract being signed withBath Iron Works for the construction of USSAllen on 30 January 1915.[2]Allen was laid down by Bath Iron Works at theirBathMaine shipyard and was launched on 5 December 1916, sponsored by Miss Dorothea Dix Allen and Miss Harriet Allen Butler, andcommissioned on 24 January 1917,Lieutenant CommanderSamuel W. Bryant in command.[3] Final delivery from Bath Iron Works was recorded as 22 October 1917, per the official records of the Bath Iron Works Company. (record Number 68). Construction cost was $816,185.43 for hull and machinery.[4]
Allen was 315 ft 3 in (96.09 m)long overall and 310 ft 0 in (94.49 m)between perpendiculars, with abeam of 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) and adraft of 10 ft 9 in (3.28 m).Displacement was 920 long tons (935 t) standard and 1,330 long tons (1,350 t) full load. FourNormand three-drum water tube boilers suppliedsaturated steam at 260 psi (1,800 kPa) to two sets of Parsonssteam turbines rated at 17,500 shp (13,000 kW).[5] A geared cruising turbine was fitted which could drive theport propeller shaft.[1][6] Design speed was 29.5 kn (33.9 mph; 54.6 km/h), with a speed of 30.29 kn (34.86 mph; 56.10 km/h) reached duringsea trials.[7]
The ship was armed with four4-inch (102 mm) 50-calibre guns,[1] with two 1-pounder (37 mm)pom-pomautocannon providing anti-aircraft protection.[8] Four triple mounts for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes were fitted.[1] Crew was 136 officers and other ranks during wartime and 103 during peacetime.[7]
By 1930,Allen's pom-poms had been replaced by a single 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft gun.[6]Allen was rearmed during World War II for escort operations, with two triple torpedo-tube mounts being removed to accommodate depth charge projectors and sixOerlikon 20 mm cannons.[9]
In the five months after commissioning,Allen conducted patrol and escort duty along the eastern seaboard of the US and in theWest Indies, continuing these duties following theUnited States enteringWorld War I on the side of theAllies on 6 April. On the night of 30 April/1 May 1917,Allen was escorting the battleshipConnecticut when she collided with the destroyerDuncan, damaging both ships.[3] On 14 June, the destroyer put to sea fromNew York in the escort of one of the first convoys to take American troops toEurope. After seeing the convoy safely across theAtlantic,Allen joined other American destroyers atQueenstown,Ireland, and began duty patrolling againstU-boats and escorting convoys on the last leg of their voyage to Europe under the command of CommanderHenry D. Cooke. Cooke was later awarded with theNavy Cross for his leadership of USSAllen.
That duty included escort missions into bothFrench andBritish ports. During her service at Queenstown, she reported engagements with Germansubmarines on 10 separate occasions, but postwar checks of German records failed to substantiate even the most plausible of the supposed encounters.
On 14 July 1917,Allen was escorting the merchant ships SSRhesus and SSIdomeneus whenRhesus was missed by a torpedo, possibly from the German submarineU-49 orU-58.[10] One of the last duties the destroyer performed in European waters came in December 1918 when she helped to escortGeorge Washington, with PresidentWoodrow Wilson embarked, intoBrest,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 theUnited States 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 atWashington, D.C. In March 1928, the destroyer returned to the Reserve Fleet and was berthed atPhiladelphia. There, she remained for more than 12 years. On 23 August 1940,Allen was recommissioned at Philadelphia.
Following a brief period of service on theUnited States East Coast,Allen was reassigned to thePacific Fleet as a unit of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 80. By the timeAllen returned to commission, the Pacific Fleet had been moved from its base on theUnited States West Coast toPearl Harbor,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,Allen was moored in East Loch to the northeast ofFord Island and just southeast of thehospital shipUSS Solace. During the Japaneseattack on the harbor that morning, it was claimed thatAllen assisted in downing three enemy planes.[11]
Following the attack,Allen began duty escorting ships between islands of the Hawaiian chain and patrolling the area for enemy ships, primarily submarines. A primary training function ofAllen during this period was to work up new submarine crews in penetrating ASW defensive positions, withAllen acting as the defender. This task is recorded in several histories of US submarine operations in the Pacific as their first actual action against a ship. On 4 June 1942,Allen was given orders to escort the submarineUSS Nautilus toMidway Island. Upon arrivingAllen was put into a defensive role, and provided anti-air defense and screens for other ships and aided in the defense of Midway Island itself. AlthoughAllen did not have a major impact in theBattle of Midway[12]Allen survived the encounter and returned to Pearl Harbor on 6 June.Allen also made periodic round-trip voyages to the United States West Coast. Such duty remained her occupation throughoutWorld War II.
In September 1945,Allen steamed from Hawaii to Philadelphia, where she was placed out of commission on 15 October 1945. Her name was struck from theNavy list on 1 November 1945, and she was sold to the Boston Metals Company,Baltimore,Maryland, on 26 September 1946 for scrapping. Being in service prior to the US entry into World War I, and serving through World War II,Allen was the longest-serving destroyer on the Naval Register when she was sold.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
