World’s Deepest Shipwreck is the WW2 USS Destroyer Samuel B Roberts

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romaso

Lifer
Dec 29, 2010
1,702
6,446
Pacific NW
I love archaeological stuff. My dad was in the Navy in WW2 (on a different ship) and has the Phillipines ribbon with battle star. This article has lots of photos:
World’s Deepest Shipwreck Is Officially the USS Destroyer Samuel B Roberts, aka Sammy B - autoevolution

"The Sammy B engaged the Japanese heavy cruisers at point blank range and fired so rapidly it exhausted its ammunition; it was down to shooting smoke shells and illumination rounds just to try to set fires on the Japanese ships, and it kept firing."

1656364687207.png
 
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captpat

Lifer
Dec 16, 2014
2,265
12,140
North Carolina
We’re incapable of building them like that anymore.
As a Navy vet I believe we could build another like the Sammy B if we wanted. However it wouldn't make much sense to do so. In WW II War-at-Sea occurred fairly frequently, today few (if any) forecast fleet on fleet engagements of the size and span of yesteryear. There are few countries with sufficiently large Navies who could even contemplate that sort of warfare. Further the game has shifted from guns at eyeball range to missiles over the horizon, placing on premium on stealth, long range sensors and weapons. I know of no modern sailor that would prefer to go to sea on a WW II destroyer instead of a modern day version. Modern ships are better in every way that counts.

This does not diminish the heroism of the crew of the Sammy B, they acquitted themselves admirably in a fight where they were significantly outgunned.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
My dad was the skipper of a minesweeper in the Philippines during WWII in his mid-twenties. The class ship was a YMS, for yard minesweeper, but was seagoing. Some ships of this class were converted yachts early in the war, but I believe his was built to the purpose, all wood hulls, as was mine twenty some years later. He'd spent his childhood on the Lake Michigan shore boating and swimming, so he was seaworthy. He did like to take charge, so that helped. The wooden hulls were made to be non-magnetic so as not to attract mines that were drawn to steel hulls. I joked to him that we were a family minesweeper dynasty, though I was just a worker bee enlisted guy and he was an officer, and fairly soon, a ship's captain, a Lt.jg in rank. He was offered a Navy promotion and a post in Hong Kong at the end of the war, but he went home to his wife and daughter, and that's when I came along.
 

romaso

Lifer
Dec 29, 2010
1,702
6,446
Pacific NW
My dad was the skipper of a minesweeper in the Philippines during WWII in his mid-twenties.
Was he in Typhoon Cobra, which was in that area? "A powerful tropical cyclone that struck the United States Pacific Fleet in December 1944, during World War II. The storm sank three destroyers, killed 790 sailors, damaged nine other warships and swept dozens of aircraft overboard off their aircraft carriers"
My dad remembered that one! More info here:
Pacific Typhoon, 18 December 1944 (navy.mil)
and
Typhoon Cobra - Wikipedia
 
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
As is so often said of WWII veterans, Dad never gave much detail about his war experience. He'd keep it to upbeat subjects like meeting his sister, an Army nurse, while ashore, etc. He had some PTSD symptoms but never discussed or treated them directly, as was so true of most of his generation.

My minesweeper ran a typhoon "evasion" while I was aboard, in the South China Sea. Counter intuitive as it may seem, chances of riding out a typhoon at sea are better than in port, where the ship can get hammered against piers, washed up on land, grounded in the harbor and capsized, and so on. So they send ships out to sea and try to keep them as clear of the worst as possible, which is dandy if you don't have a malfunction or otherwise sink.

It was truly the ride of my life. MSO's are round bottomed and pitch and roll, but also yaw (on an angle) and continually test your hip and knee joints during any heavy weather. In a typhoon, you are seldom right-side-up for more than a second, and the force factors are huge. I had to tuck my message clipboard from the radio shack in the front of my jeans, put on my raincoat, fight my way through the dogged door (multiple latches operated with a single lever), climb a ladder (steep stairs to the bridge), clinging to lifelines while standing under a waterfall of sea water, and repeat same in reverse on the way down.

The storm tore off a twenty foot (approx.) radio antenna held in place by about two dozen bolts. We tied down all the chairs and anything loose in the radio shack and duct taped the drawers shut. Ride 'em cowboy. I had the all night watch. As long as I was breathing air and the lights were on, I figured everything was fine.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,762
13,788
Humansville Missouri
Around about twenty years or so ago, I had a client who wore a baseball cap that read:

USS Heerman

One of the wonderful joys of growing up surrounded by Cambellite schoolmarms at home, church, and school was that we kids were all taught of the noble and heroic charge of the destroyers and destroyer escorts during the Battle of Samar, where every American ship was helmed by a good and true Christian boy who was In His Service, and it was one of the countless examples of Christian sacrifice taught us, and I knew that USS Heerman alone among the destroyers, survived the battle.


It was sort of like taking to a modern day David who slew Goliath with a slingshot.:)

My client was surprised anyone my age had ever heard about the Battle of Samar, and he was more than willing to talk about it.

He said the worst minute of his entire life was when he realized they were facing Japanese capital ships. He was 20 years old and knew he’d die, but being Catholic he started reciting prayers to himself, and thought how hard his parents would take the news.

He also said the funniest thing he’d ever heard in his life was when, miraculously, the giant Yamamoto and other huge Japanese warships turned away and disengaged.

In a voice loud and clear, some sailor yelled out:

Dammit, they’re getting away!

My client only lived a few months after he came to my office, peacefully in his bed, surrounded by family.

Over 400,000 young Americans died during World War Two, so all of us havs the chance to enjoy that same great privilege.

Freedom is paid for, by the blood of the flower of our youth.
 

jpberg

Lifer
Aug 30, 2011
2,904
6,540
As a Navy vet I believe we could build another like the Sammy B if we wanted. However it wouldn't make much sense to do so. In WW II War-at-Sea occurred fairly frequently, today few (if any) forecast fleet on fleet engagements of the size and span of yesteryear. There are few countries with sufficiently large Navies who could even contemplate that sort of warfare. Further the game has shifted from guns at eyeball range to missiles over the horizon, placing on premium on stealth, long range sensors and weapons. I know of no modern sailor that would prefer to go to sea on a WW II destroyer instead of a modern day version. Modern ships are better in every way that counts.

This does not diminish the heroism of the crew of the Sammy B, they acquitted themselves admirably in a fight where they were significantly outgunned.
I’m not talking about shipbuilding, I’m talking about people building.
 

captpat

Lifer
Dec 16, 2014
2,265
12,140
North Carolina
I’m not talking about shipbuilding, I’m talking about people building.
I was a CO of an SSBN, there was no doubt in my mind that the sailors on my crew were the best trained and best sailors in the world, bar none. They exceeded expectations at every turn. The quality of individual sailors and the crews they comprise continues to get better. There are no better than an American bluejacket.
 

jpberg

Lifer
Aug 30, 2011
2,904
6,540
I was a CO of an SSBN, there was no doubt in my mind that the sailors on my crew were the best trained and best sailors in the world, bar none. They exceeded expectations at every turn. The quality of individual sailors and the crews they comprise continues to get better. There are no better than an American bluejacket.
That’s fine. I’m not knocking current soldiers, sailors, airmen, or jarheads. I’m simply saying that we’ll never replicate the balls and resolve that the country and our fighting men had in that conflict.
 

Akousticplyr

Lifer
Oct 12, 2019
1,155
5,712
Florida Panhandle
I was a CO of an SSBN, there was no doubt in my mind that the sailors on my crew were the best trained and best sailors in the world, bar none. They exceeded expectations at every turn. The quality of individual sailors and the crews they comprise continues to get better. There are no better than an American bluejacket.
I was CO of a squadron and had the same experience. Currently working with a team of Top Gun graduates and professional adversaries and can safely say they are the best I’ve ever seen.

Having said that, I don’t know how the Samuel B Roberts was even able to float with the size of the testicles in that crew.

A humbling legacy and awe inspiring standard was set by them.
 

huntertrw

Lifer
Jul 23, 2014
5,219
5,338
The Lower Forty of Hill Country


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Coxswain Samuel Booker Roberts, Jr.