USS William D. Porter had all the makings of another proud US Navy ship when it arrived during World War II. But the Fletcher-class destroyer's service life was marred by a serious of mistakes and errors.
On June 10, 1945, the USS William Porter had its final stroke of bad luck. An incoming kamikaze plane dove at the ship, and the ship managed to actually shoot it down. However, the plane splashed down near the ship and somehow managed to explode while it was underwater, directly underneath the Willie-Dee.
The 317 metres long USS Nimitz measures 40.8 metres beam wise and 11.9 metres draught wise, and has a displacement of over 1, 00,000 tons. The aircraft carrier offers a speed of 31.5 knots and is supplied by two water reactors.
At 1322, an Essex Corsair hit Yamato in the port bow with a 1,000-pound general-purpose bomb.
In her short career in the Pacific War, Tang sank 33 ships totalling 116,454 tons. Commander Richard O'Kane received the Medal of Honor for her last two engagements (23 and 24 October 1944).
The wartime sinking of the German Wilhelm Gustloff in January 1945 in World War II by a Soviet Navy submarine, with an estimated loss of about 9,400 people, remains the deadliest isolated maritime disaster ever, excluding such events as the destruction of entire fleets like the 1274 and 1281 storms that are said to ...
USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy. Naval officers and crew still serve aboard the ship today.
By the middle of World War II, carrier-borne aircraft become so effective that the aircraft carrier was clearly replacing the battleship as the core of the modern navy.
Such became the nickname of the Benson-class destroyer USS Laffey (DD-724), which served with distinction during the Normandy invasion, then later stood her ground against a withering and relentless combined assault from conventional bombers and kamikazes during the Battle of Okinawa.
The USS Nevada was the only battleship to get underway the morning of December 7, 1941, making her “the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal and depressing morning".
RMS Titanic
The supposedly "unsinkable" ocean liner set sail on its maiden voyage on 10 April 1912 only to hit an iceberg just before midnight on 14 April and sank in less than three hours. Claiming 1,514 lives, it is often remembered as one of the most famous and tragic shipwrecks in history.
On July 31, Nevada was to be sunk by naval gunfire from the modern battleship USS Iowa (16-inch guns) and three light cruisers (6-inch guns). First from 15 miles out, then just five, Nevada was pounded by gunfire, but refused to sink.
Why the USS Missouri has been described as the most famous battleship ever built - USS Missouri (en)
During World War II, the U.S. Navy almost achieved what the Axis powers could only dream of: killing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Commissioned on July 6, 1943, the USS William D. Porter, better known as the “Willie Dee,” garnered its namesake from a Civil War naval officer of the same name.
America has just three fully operational merchant ships remaining from WWII—and this 455-foot Victory-class vessel is one of them. Step into the massive engine room, which stretches a full seven decks high (out of nine total); explore the crew quarters and galley; and have the kids crank the pivot on the deck gun.
USS Indianapolis: WWII warship wreckage found 72 years after being sunk by Japanese submarine.
The US Navy has a way to get rid of warships it no longer uses — using them as target practice and gunning them down with missiles. The US Navy conducts exercises called "sinkex," where old vessels are destroyed for target practice. However, all US Navy vessels must be stripped of pollutants before they are sunk.
The loss of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German military transport ship which was sunk on January 30, 1945, has become infamous as the largest loss of life on a single ship.
As recently as 2000, more than 200 big ships were lost. (Don't call them “boats” unless you're ready to be corrected by cranky old salts.) By the early 2010s, that number had dropped to about 100 a year. In 2021, just 49 were lost, and 2020 saw only 48 losses.
The dubious honor of the worst sinking of all time goes to the Wilhelm Gustloff, torpedoed by a Russian submarine on January 30th, 1945. She was crammed to the gunwales with German refugees, fleeing the advancing Russian Army in the waning months of World War Two.
No American battleship has ever been lost at sea, though four were sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The online service wreck site has a catalogue of 209,640 boats known to have sunk, 179,110 of which have a known location. The Global Maritime Wrecks Database (GMWD), on the other hand, contains the records of more than 250,000 sunken vessels, though some of these still haven't been found.
Trinidad emerged from the fog with a list and smoke pouring from a hole in her side. The Times Roll of honour April 1942. mechanism (probably due to freezing) caused one of Trinidad's own torpedoes to arc and strike the ship. 32 of the crew were killed.