USS Raby (DE-698)

History


Name:	USS Raby
Namesake:	James J. Raby
Ordered:	1942
Builder:	Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan
Laid down:	7 June 1943
Launched:	4 September 1943
Commissioned:	7 December 1943
Decommissioned:	22 December 1953
Reclassified:	DEC-698, 2 November 1949 DE-698, 27 December 1957
Struck:	1 June 1968
Honors and awards:	3 battle stars (World War II)
Fate:	Sold for scrap
General characteristics
Class and type:	Buckley-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,400 long tons (1,422 t) standard 1,740 long tons (1,768 t) full load
Length:	306 ft (93 m)
Beam:	37 ft (11 m)
Draft:	9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) standard 11 ft 3 in (3.43 m) full load
Propulsion:	2 × boilers General Electric turbo-electric drive 12,000 shp (8.9 MW) 2 × solid manganese-bronze 3,600 lb (1,600 kg) 3-bladed propellers, 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) diameter, 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) pitch 2 × rudders 359 tons fuel oil
Speed:	23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range:	3,700 nmi (6,900 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	15 officers, 198 men
Armament:	3 × 3"/50 caliber guns 1 × quad 1.1"/75 caliber gun 8 × single 20 mm guns 1 × triple 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 8 × K-gun depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Raby (DE/DEC-698) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort for the United States Navy. She was named for Rear Admiral James Joseph Raby (1874–1934).

Raby was laid down on 7 June 1943 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan, Rear Admiral Raby's home town. The ship was named Raby on 22 June 1943, and launched on 4 September 1943, sponsored by Mrs. James Joseph Raby, the Admiral's widow. She was commissioned on 7 December 1943 at New Orleans, Louisiana, with Lieutenant Commander J. Scott II, in command.

After shakedown off Bermuda, Raby sailed from Norfolk, Virginia on 10 February 1944 via the Panama Canal for Nouméa, arriving on 11 March. She then escorted fast convoys from Guadalcanal as far as Manus Island, in the Admiralties.

Raby was engaged in hunter-killer activities in the Solomons during the early spring. On 16 May, she sailed from Florida Island, in the Solomons, in a hunter-killer group with England (DE-635) and George (DE-697) on what was to become one of the most successful anti-submarine actions in the Pacific war. During this patrol from 19 to 31 May, the three-ship team sank six Japanese submarines (I-16, RO-106, RO-104, RO-116, RO-108, and RO-105) in waters north of the Bismarck Archipelago.