USS Edison (DD-439)

History

United States
Name:	Edison
Namesake:	Thomas Alva Edison
Builder:	Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
Laid down:	18 March 1940
Launched:	23 November 1940
Commissioned:	31 January 1941
Decommissioned:	18 May 1946
Struck:	1 April 1966
Fate:	Sold 29 December 1966 and broken up for scrap
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 knots (69 km/h)
Range:	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	16 officers, 260 enlisted
Armament:	5 × 5 in (127 mm) DP guns, 6 × 0.5 in (12.7 mm) guns, 6 × 20 mm AA guns, 10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes, 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Edison (DD-439), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for Thomas Alva Edison, an inventor and businessman who developed many important devices.

Edison was launched 23 November 1940 by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Alva Edison, widow of the inventor; and commissioned 31 January 1941, Lieutenant Commander A. C. Murdaugh in command. Murdaugh was allowed to hand-pick the specific 5"/38 caliber gun barrels to be installed on the ship himself, but, much to his dismay, President Roosevelt personally ordered them transferred to the British cruiser HMS Delhi.

In the months following commissioning, Edison operated on the east coast, training and exercising with the fleet, with passenger and mail runs to NS Argentia, Newfoundland. In November she escorted a convoy to Iceland, her first of many voyages which kept the lifelines open to northern bases and Britain.

On 24 October 1942 Edison set sail from Norfolk with a task group bound for the invasion at Fedhala, French Morocco, 8 November. She engaged shore batteries and enemy destroyers at Cape Fedhala and protected shipping lying off the beachheads during the Naval Battle of Casablanca:

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