Photo. www.navsource.org By Chris Wright
CLASS: EDSALL
TYPE: FMR (geared diesel, Fairbanks-Morse reverse gear drive, 3" guns)
04 January 1943: Keel laid by the Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Tex.
09 March 1943: Launched and christened, sponsored by Mrs. R. K. Fessenden, daughter-in-law of Professor Fessenden
25 August 1943: Commissioned at the City Dock, Orange, Tex.; Lcdr W. A. Dobbs, USNR, in command
24 June 1946: Decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Fla. after 2 years and 10 months of service
01 October 1951: Reclassified DER 142, conversion carried out at the Boston Naval Shipyard
04 March 1952: Recommissioned at Boston, Lcdr. Henry A. Burgess in command, assigned to Atlantic Barrier Patrol at Newport, R.I.
15 July 1957: Homeport assignment changed to Pearl Harbor, Hi.
30 June 1960: Decommissioned at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard after 8 years and 4 months of service, placed in reserve at Stockton, Cal.
01 September 1966: Struck from the NVR with a total of 11 years and 2 months of naval service
20 December 1967: Sunk as a target off the Hawaiian coast near Pearl Harbor
Displacement: 1,200 tons (std) 1,590 tons (full)
Dimensions: 306' (oa), 300' (wl) x 36' 10" x 12' 3" (max)
Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1),1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks.
Machinery: 4 Fairbanks-Morse Mod. 38d81/8 geared diesel engines, 4 diesel-generators, 6000 shp, 2 screws.
Speed: 21 knots.
Range: 9,100 nm @ 12 knots
Crew: 8 / 201.
After a period at Norfolk, Virginia, as training ship for crews for escorts soon to be commissioned, Fessenden carried out an escort mission to the Panama Canal Zone, returning to Norfolk 5 November 1943. Between 23 November and 18 March 1944, she escorted convoys on two voyages to Casablanca, then on 3 April sailed again to guard a convoy to Bizerte. Off Bone 20 April the convoy came under heavy air attack, one guardian destroyer being sunk, and on the homeward bound passage, the convoy screen lost two more destroyers to submarine attack. Fessenden returned safely to
She sailed from
Operating with a group south of the