USS Edsall (DE-129)

History
United States
Namesake:	Norman Edsall
Builder:	Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas
Laid down:	2 July 1942
Launched:	1 November 1942
Commissioned:	10 April 1943
Decommissioned:	11 June 1946
Stricken:	1 June 1968
Fate:	Sold for scrap,; July 1969;
General characteristics
Class and type:	Edsall-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,590 tons full,; 1,200 tons standard;
Length:	306 ft (93 m) overall
Beam:	36 ft 7 in (11.15 m)
Draught:	12 ft 3 in (3.73 m) ax
Propulsion:	4 FM diesel engines,; 4 diesel-generators,; 6,000 shp (4.5 MW),; 2 screws;
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h)
Range:	9,100 nmi. at 12 knots; (17,000 km at 22 km/h);
Complement:	8 officers, 201 enlisted
Armament:	3 × single 3 in (76 mm)/50 guns; 1 × twin 40 mm AA guns; 8 × single 20 mm AA guns; 1 × triple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes; 8 × depth charge projectors; 1 × depth charge projector (hedgehog); 2 × depth charge tracks;

USS Edsall (DE-129) was the lead ship of her class of destroyer escort in the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship named in honor of Seaman Norman Edsall (1873–1899).

Edsall was laid down by the Consolidated Steel Corporation at Orange, Texas on 2 July 1942; launched 1 November 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Bessie Edsall Bracey, sister of Seaman Edsall; and commissioned 10 April 1943, with Lieutenant Commander E. C. Woodward in command.

History

Edsall was a schoolship at Norfolk, 20 June to 6 August 1943, for pre-commissioning crews of escort vessels, then served at Miami with the Submarine Chaser Training Center. In March 1944, she joined a tanker convoy at Galveston, Texas, assigned to Escort Division 59, whose flagship she became 24 March. Edsall continued escort duty from the Gulf of Mexico to New York City and Norfolk, and with one convoy to NS Argentia, Newfoundland. In May, she sailed to Bermuda for antisubmarine warfare tests using a captured Italian submarine.

Between 1 July 1944 and 3 June 1945, she ranged Atlantic sealanes guarding seven convoys carrying the very lifeblood to the Mediterranean and Britain. While escorting the sixth convoy en route to New York from Liverpool on 10 April 1945, Edsall along with other escorts were quick to come to the assistance of two tankers in the convoy who had collided. Edsall searched for survivors and helped extinguish fires which broke out.

Edsall sailed for the Pacific on 24 June 1945, but World War II ended while she was training at Pearl Harbor, and she returned East. She was placed out of commission in reserve at Green Cove Springs, Florida, on 11 June 1946.

Edsall was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1968, and sold for scrap in July 1969.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

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