History | |
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Builder: | Bath Iron Works |
Laid down: | 15 July 1937 |
Launched: | 8 April 1939 |
Sponsored by: | Mrs. William S. Sims |
Commissioned: | 1 August 1939 |
Struck: | 24 June 1942 |
Fate: | Sunk by Japanese aircraft in Battle of Coral Sea on 7 May 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Sims-class destroyer |
Displacement: |
|
Length: | 348 ft, 3¼ in, (106.15 m) |
Beam: | 36 ft, 1 in (11 m) |
Draft: | 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 Sims (DD-409) was the lead ship of her class of destroyers in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the first ship to be named for William Sims, an Admiral who pushed for the modernization of the Navy.
Sims was laid down on 15 July 1937 by Bath Iron Works Corporation, Bath, Maine; launched on 8 April 1939; sponsored by Mrs. William S. Sims; and commissioned on 1 August 1939, Lieutenant Commander William Arthur Griswold in command.
After shakedown training in the Caribbean and post-shakedown availability in the Boston Navy Yard, Sims joined the Atlantic Squadron at Norfolk, Virginia on 2 August 1940. The destroyer operated with the Neutrality Patrol in Caribbean and South Atlantic waters. In November–December 1940, Sims patrolled off Martinique. On 28 May 1941, the ship arrived at Newport, Rhode Island, and began operating from there. She sailed for Iceland on 28 July with an American task force. In August, the destroyer patrolled the approaches to Iceland. In September–October, the ship made two North Atlantic patrols. Sims had been attached to Destroyer Squadron 2 (DesRon 2) since she began making Neutrality Patrols.
With the outbreak of war on 7 December 1941, DesRon 2 became part of Task Force 17 (TF17) formed around Yorktown. The task force sortied from Norfolk on 16 December 1941 for San Diego, California. From there, it sailed as part of a convoy taking Marines to Samoa, arriving on 23 January 1942.