USS Evarts (DE-5)
| | Career |  | United States Navy Jack |
|
|---|
| Ordered: |
| Laid down: |
| Launched: | 7 December 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 15 April 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | 2 October 1945 |
| Fate: | Scrapped 12 July 1946 |
| Struck: |
| General characteristics |
|---|
| Displacement: | 1140 tons |
| Length: | 289 ft 5 in (88 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft 1 in (10.7 m) |
| Draught: | 8 ft 3 in (2.5 m) |
| Propulsion: |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h) |
| Range: |
| Complement: | 156 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 3 x 3 in (76.2 mm) (3x1)
8 Depth Charge throwers
1 Hedgehog depth charge projector
2 depth charge tracks |
| Motto: |
USS Evarts (DE-5) was the
lead ship of
her class of
destroyer escorts in the
United States Navy. She was named for
Milo Burnell Evarts.
Evarts was launched on
7 December 1942 at the
Boston Navy Yard in
Boston, Massachusetts, as
BDE-5, intended for transfer to
Britain. Instead, she was retained for use in the U.S. Navy, and commissioned on
15 April 1943, with
Lieutenant Commander C. B. Henriques, USNR, in command.
After
anti-submarine training and experiments with
radar in
Chesapeake Bay,
Evarts began steady service as a convoy escort, during much of which she flew the flag of Commander,
Escort Division 5. After five voyages to
Casablanca, she sailed from
Norfolk, Virginia, on
22 April 1944 on her first run to
Bizerte. Two days before reaching that port, her convoy came under heavy attack by enemy torpedo planes, and
Evarts joined in the protective
anti-aircraft barrage which splashed many of the attackers.
During the homeward bound passage of this same voyage, on
29 May 1944,
Evarts was detached from the convoy to aid the
escort carrier Block Island (CVE-21) and destroyer escort
Barr (DE-576), both of whom had been
torpedoed by a
German submarine. She arrived at the given position to find
Block Island had sunk, but screened
Barr, under tow, to safety at Casablanca. A second voyage to Bizerte was uneventful, as were the one to
Palermo and the three to
Oran which followed.
Completing her convoy escort duties on
11 June 1945,
Evarts acted as target in exercises with submarines at
New London, Connecticut, until arriving at
New York on
11 September. There she was decommissioned on
2 October 1945, and was scrapped starting on
12 July 1946.
Evarts received one
battle star for
World War II service.
See also,
List of patrol vessels of the United States Navy
