USS Edsall (DE-129)

History

United States
Namesake:	Norman Edsall
Builder:	Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas
Laid down:	2 July 1942
Launched:	1 November 1942
Commissioned:	10 April 1943
Decommissioned:	11 June 1946
Struck:	1 June 1968
Fate:	Sold for scrap, July 1969
General characteristics
Class and type:	Edsall-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,590 tons full, 1,200 tons standard
Length:	306 ft (93 m) overall
Beam:	36 ft 7 in (11.15 m)
Draught:	12 ft 3 in (3.73 m) ax
Propulsion:	4 FM diesel engines, 4 diesel-generators, 6,000 shp (4.5 MW), 2 screws
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h)
Range:	9,100 nmi. at 12 knots (17,000 km at 22 km/h)
Complement:	8 officers, 201 enlisted
Armament:	3 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 guns (3 × 1) 2 × 40 mm AA guns (1 × 2) 8 × 20 mm AA guns (8 × 1) 3 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes (1 × 3) 8 × depth charge projectors 1 × depth charge projector (hedgehog) 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Edsall (DE-129) was the lead ship of her class of destroyer escort in the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship named in honor of Seaman Norman Edsall (1873–1899).

Edsall was laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas on 2 July 1942; launched 1 November 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Bessie Edsall Bracey, sister of Seaman Edsall; and commissioned 10 April 1943, with Lieutenant Commander E. C. Woodward in command.

Edsall was a schoolship at Norfolk, 20 June to 6 August 1943, for pre-commissioning crews of escort vessels, then served at Miami with the Submarine Chaser Training Center. In March 1944, she joined a tanker convoy at Galveston, Texas, assigned to Escort Division 59, whose flagship she became 24 March. Edsall continued escort duty from the Gulf of Mexico to New York City and Norfolk, and with one convoy to NS Argentia, Newfoundland. In May, she sailed to Bermuda for antisubmarine warfare tests using a captured Italian submarine.