USS Watts (DD-567)
_underway_c1955.jpg)
USS Watts (DD-567) underway, circa 1955
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Namesake: | John Watts |
| Builder: | Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Laid down: | 26 March 1943 |
| Launched: | 31 December 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 29 April 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | December 1964 |
| Struck: | 1 February 1974 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap, 5 September 1974 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Fletcher class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 2,050 tons |
| Length: | 376 ft 6 in (114.7 m) |
| Beam: | 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m) |
| Draft: | 17 ft 9 in (5.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | 60,000 shp (45 MW); 2 propellers |
| Speed: | 35 knots (65 km/h) |
| Range: | 6500 nmi. (12,000 km) @ 15 kt |
| Complement: | 329 |
| Armament: |
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USS Watts (DD-567) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. It was named for Captain John Watts (ca.1778–1823), who fought French privateers during the Quasi-War with France.
Watts was laid down on 26 March 1943 at Seattle, Wash., by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 31 December 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Judith Bundick Gardner; and commissioned on 29 April 1944, Commander Joseph B. Maher in command.
Following two weeks of testing and calibrating equipment in Puget Sound, Watts embarked upon her first voyage on 17 May. She headed for San Diego and a month of shakedown training. She returned to Bremerton, Wash. on 26 June and underwent three weeks of post-shakedown availability. On 12 July, she departed Bremerton in company with battleships Mississippi (BB-41) and West Virginia (BB-48) bound for San Diego. The destroyer remained at San Diego until the 22d, at which time she put to sea in the screen of a Hawaii-bound convoy of troop transports. She arrived in Pearl Harbor on 29 July and remained only until 3 August when she stood out with Destroyer Division 113 (DesDiv 113) and shaped a course for Aleutian waters. On 8 August, Watts led her division mates into port at Adak, Alaska.
During the next seven months, the destroyer operated with the other units of DesDiv 113 as a part of the Navy's North Pacific Force. Since her assignment there came well after America had consolidated her hold on the Aleutians chain, the bulk of Watts' duties consisted of patrols and supply convoy-escort missions between the various outposts scattered across the fog and snow-bound archipelago. On the other hand, she and her division mates did, on occasion, conduct offensive operations against the Japanese Empire—primarily against the northern Kuril Islands.
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