Photo. http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/pix2/0535916.jpg USS Winslow (DD-359) alongside pier at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, circa December 1942. Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 59941. By Mike Green
CLASS - PORTER
Displacement 2597 Tons (Full)
Dimensions, 381' (oa) x 37' x 13' (Max)
Launched September 21 1936 and commissioned February 17 1937.
Reclassified AG-127 September 17 1945.
Decommissioned June 28 1950.
Stricken December 5 1957.
Fate: Sold February 23 1959 and broken up for scrap.
Armament 8 x 5"/38AA (4x2), 8 x 1.1" AA (2x4), 8 x 21" tt.(2x4).
Machinery, 50,000 SHP; Geared Turbines, 2 screws.
Speed, 37 Knots.
Range 6500 NM@ 12 Knots.
Crew 194.
By 1941, events in Europe where World War II was already in its second year necessitated the strengthening of American naval forces in the Atlantic. Accordingly, Winslow retransited the canal in April and, after visiting Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, reported for duty at Norfolk, Va. That summer, she conducted training operations with submarines off the New England coast. Later, she also participated in neutrality patrols, particularly those directed at keeping watch over the Vichy French ships at Martinique and Guadeloupe in the French Antilles.
Early in August, Winslow joined Tuscaloosa (CA-37) in escorting Augusta (CA-31) as that heavy cruiser carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Argentia, Newfoundland, to meet British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the conference which resulted in the Atlantic Charter. Then, after escorting transports carrying reinforcements to Iceland, the destroyer arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, early in November and became a unit in the screen of America's first convoy to the Orient.
Convoy WS-12X, bound via the Cape of Good Hope for Singapore, departed Halifax on 10 November. Just before the convoy reached Capetown, South Africa, where the destroyers were to part company with the convoy and head for home, word arrived that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.
After leaving the convoy at Capetown, DD 359 Winslow returned to the