USS Meredith (DD-434)

History
USS Meredith at Suva, Fiji Islands, 23 June 1942, in dazzle camouflage.
United States
Name:	Meredith
Namesake:	Jonathan Meredith
Builder:	Boston Navy Yard
Laid down:	1 June 1939
Launched:	24 April 1940
Commissioned:	1 March 1941
Fate:	Sunk by Japanese aircraft, 15 October 1942
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gleaves-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,630 tons
Length:	348 ft 3 in (106.15 m)
Beam:	36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft:	11 ft 10 in (3.61 m)
Propulsion:	50,000 shp (37,000 kW) 4 boilers 2 propellers
Speed:	37.4 kn (69.3 km/h; 43.0 mph)
Range:	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	208
Armament:	5 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal guns, 6 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons, 6 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns, 10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes, 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Meredith (DD-434), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Jonathan Meredith, a United States Marine Corps Sergeant who served during the First Barbary War.

Meredith was laid down 1 June 1939 by Boston Naval Shipyard and launched 24 April 1940, sponsored by Miss Ethel Dixon Meredith. The ship was commissioned on 1 March 1941, Lieutenant Commander William F. Mendenhall, Jr., in command.

Following shakedown in Cuban waters, Meredith returned to Boston on 8 June 1941 and was assigned to Destroyer Division 22. Departing Boston on 6 July, she engaged in patrol duty, exercises, and flight operations along the southern coast until 20 September. From 28 September to 31 January 1942, Meredith was based at Hvalfjörður, Iceland, where she patrolled between Iceland and the Denmark Straits. On 17 October 1941, she rescued survivors of torpedoed British steamer Empire Wave.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Meredith engaged in escort and antisubmarine patrol between Iceland and the Denmark Straits, until she departed Halfjordur late in January, escorting a convoy to Boston. She sailed from Boston for Norfolk, Virginia on 18 February 1942, screening the battleship Washington, and there joined the aircraft carrier Hornet in Task Force 18 (TF 18).

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Wikipedia