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Anderson running trials in 1939
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History | |
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Builder: | Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company |
Laid down: | 15 November 1937 |
Launched: | 4 February 1939 |
Commissioned: | 19 May 1939 |
Decommissioned: | 28 August 1946 |
Struck: | 25 September 1946 |
Honours and awards: |
American Defense Service Medal ("Fleet" clasp, "A" device), Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (2 stars), World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service Medal ("Japan" clasp) |
Fate: | Sunk by Test "Able" (Operation Crossroads) at Bikini Atoll 1 July 1946 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Sims-class destroyer |
Displacement: |
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Length: | 348 ft, 3¼ in, (106.15 m) |
Beam: | 36 ft, 1 in (11 m) |
Draught: | 13 ft, 4.5 in (4.07 m) |
Propulsion: | High-pressure super-heated boilers, geared turbines with twin screws, 50,000 horsepower |
Speed: | 35 knots |
Range: | 3,660 nautical miles at 20 kt (6,780 km at 37 km/h) |
Complement: | 192 (10 officers/182 enlisted) |
Armament: |
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Armor: | None |
USS Anderson (DD-411) was a Sims-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Rear Admiral Edwin Alexander Anderson, Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient.
Anderson was laid down on 15 November 1937 at Kearny, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company; launched on 4 February 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Mertie Loraine Anderson, the widow of Rear Admiral Anderson; towed to the New York Navy Yard, and delivered there to the Navy on 18 May 1939; and commissioned on 19 May 1939, Lieutenant Commander William M. Hobby, Jr., in command.
Anderson was the first of the Sims class to be delivered in early 1939, and was found to be 150 tons overweight and dangerously top-heavy due to insufficient metacentric height. This touched off a redesign and rebuilding of the class, completed during 1941. One 5 inch gun (No. 3) and one quad torpedo tube mount were removed, with another torpedo tube mount relocated to the centerline. It was determined that an underestimate by the Bureau of Engineering of the weight of a new machinery design was responsible, and that the Bureau of Construction and Repair did not have sufficient authority to detect or correct the error during the design process. This eventually led to the consolidation of the previous bureaus into the new Bureau of Ships on 20 June 1940.
After commissioning, Anderson remained at the New York Navy Yard through June, fitting out, during which time she contributed a landing party of sailors to march in the New York City Flag Day parade on 14 June 1939. Underway from her berth on 5 July, Anderson reached Newport, Rhode Island, on 7 July, mooring to the east dock at the Naval Torpedo Station, and taking on board torpedo warheads, exploders, and test equipment before returning to the New York Navy Yard the next day, pausing there only briefly before getting underway later that afternoon for Washington, D.C.