US Navy destroyer Porter entered the Black Sea. The expert assessed the entry of the American destroyer Porter into the Black Sea Uss porter ddg 78 type arly burke

But these are battleships - the most powerful artillery ships, and their fate is known to everyone who is more or less interested in naval history people. Even if they weren't interested at all.
There were less famous ships in history with no less interesting destinies. For example, the destroyer USS William D Porter (DD-579) of the Fletcher type got into it, and how. But I will not immediately disclose the details, people who know will understand what it is about, and the rest, I think, will not be very interesting to read “the killer is the butler” on the first page.
William D Porter was the 134th Fletcher-class destroyer built, the largest in history. It was built at the Consolidated Steel Corporation shipyard in Orange, Texas and commissioned on the sixth of July 1943 and passed through November combat training in Norfolk. The crew, with the exception of the captain (lieutenant commander, which corresponds to our lieutenant commander, William Walter) and a few people from the team, was as "green" as the ship.
By November, the command recklessly considered that the crew of the ship was ready for its first military campaign. And what a hike! Porter was not supposed to escort some ordinary convoy to Europe, no! Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself was heading to Morocco to fly from there to conferences, first to Cairo and then to Tehran. For greater security vehicle not a comfortable cruise liner was chosen for the president, but the most modern US battleship - USS Iowa (BB-61).
So, on Sunday, November 12, 1943, the Porter, nicknamed Wille dee, headed from Norfolk to rendezvous with the Iowa, two escort aircraft carriers and two more destroyers, but the first obstacle awaited her even before leaving the harbor. Quite a material obstacle in the form of a destroyer-sistership, inopportunely turned up along the road. The ships collided as they left the pier. The Willie D's anchor slid across the deck of the stricken destroyer, blowing away lifelines, life rafts, a small boat and other ship's equipment, inopportunely tucked under its paws. The Porter himself escaped with scratches at anchor and, with a brief apology, hurried to meet the Iowa. I don't know if anyone on board the destroyer considered this a bad sign, but having heard a lot about superstition, I'll assume that it was. Now, these superstitious people were absolutely right.
The next day, the Willie D, which joined the Iowa, met with a storm - quite a common thing for the North Atlantic. No one was going to stay at sea longer than necessary, but this weather was very good for submarines, and therefore the convoy to average speed he wrote out anti-submarine zigzags, signalmen on the bridges vigilantly looked at the horizon, and in general everyone was in suspense. The mission of the convoy was completely, absolutely secret, its purpose was hidden until the last moment, so the order to maintain complete radio silence seemed completely natural and correct. And in this atmosphere of general paranoia, there was an explosion. Behind the stern of the Porter shot up tall pole water. What is it? Exploded torpedo? A depth charge dropped on a submarine? In any case, this is no accident. The destroyers began to search for the submarine and continued to search for it until "Willy Dee" prosemaphore "We did it". As it turned out, another wave washed away a depth charge with a fuse installed from the stern of the ship, and it rushed right behind the stern of the ship, washing away everything that was poorly fixed from the poop.
Shortly thereafter, another large wave rolled onto the ship. She washed away a sailor from the deck, who could not be saved. This was not the end of the matter: the water took with it part of the rails and life rafts. Moreover, water overflowed one of the boiler rooms, causing the destroyer to slow down. Upon learning of the problems of the Willie Dee trailing behind, the head of naval operations, Ernest J. King, who was on board the Iowa, expressed his disapproval to Captain Walter. In addition, he had to report every hour to the commander of the formation on the state of the ship. After such a thrashing, Captain Walter promised that the crew would be intensively engaged in combat training all the time that the ship had to spend at sea.
The next morning was calm and sunny. The connection was passing west of Bermuda and the president asked to demonstrate the repulse of an air attack. "Iowa" released balloons, which were supposed to serve as targets for anti-aircraft gunners. Captain Walter and his crew watched the fireworks from a distance of six kilometers. They had something to look at: according to the recollections of eyewitnesses, about a hundred guns of various calibers fired at the balls. But the Porter crew wanted to join in the fun too! Finally, Captain Walter had a chance to restore his reputation: several balls missed by the Iowa anti-aircraft gunners flew into the range of the Willie D's guns. Immediately, the anti-aircraft gunners were sent to combat posts and started shooting at the balls.
The second item on the program was a demonstration of a torpedo attack. The destroyers were supposed to simulate the launch of torpedoes on the Iowa. At the same time, the only difference from live firing is that propellant charges (primers) are removed from the tubes of torpedo tubes before firing, which is what the torpedoists Leighton Dawson and Tony Fazio did. And for training, you needed a target, and there was no better target within a radius of tens of miles than the Iowa, big and clumsy. The position for the attack was occupied, the data for firing were ready, all that remained was to command "Fire". Commands went from the bridge: “Fire once! Fire two! “Fire three” did not follow: after the command “Fire two”, a characteristic hiss was heard, and the carcass of the torpedo plopped into the water near the side of the destroyer. In those seconds, many in the crew grew gray hair.
It only took a couple of minutes for the torpedo to reach the Iowa. Chaos began on the bridge, orders succeeded each other, sometimes being completely opposite to the previous ones. At first, the message about the torpedo was transmitted to the Iowa by a flashing device, but the inexperienced signalman mixed everything up, and the transmitted message said that the torpedo was coming from the Iowa. Another message was sent, this time saying that "Willie D" gave "full back". Realizing that the next message will not better than the first two (and time slipped like sand through his fingers), Captain Walter gave the order to break the radio silence. The Porter's radio operator called the Iowa: "Lion, Lion, turn right!" The Iowa radio operator, who was surprised to hear someone, calmly clarified who it was and what, in fact, the hell he was doing on the air: “Identify yourself and repeat where the submarine is?” The response from Willie D was not much more coherent than the previous message: “Torpedo in the water! Leo, turn right! Anxiety! Leo, turn right! Right!”.
But there was no response from the Iowa to this message, because in the same seconds one of the signalers noticed the “fish” and shouted: “Torpedo on the starboard side! This is not teaching! Torpedo on the starboard side! President Roosevelt asked that his carriage be rolled closer to the ship so as not to miss anything from the performance.
The Iowa began to turn to the right, and her anti-aircraft guns began to fire at the torpedo. The combat alarm sounded, the sailors ran to their posts. Soon some of them were able to see the approaching torpedo. The ship banked so hard to port in a desperate turn that Roosevelt's bodyguards had to hold on to his carriage, and one of them even took out a pistol, intending to fire at the torpedo when it came closer. But this was not required: the Iowa successfully evaded the torpedo, and it exploded in the wake. Later, Roosevelt left this entry in his diary about this: “On Monday there were firing practice. The Porter fired a torpedo at us by mistake. We saw her—missed by a thousand feet.”
Finally, the Porter crew was able to take a breath, but nothing was over for them yet. The Iowa returned to duty and trained her guns on the destroyer that was firing at the president. The formation commander personally broke radio silence, wanting to know who was responsible for the torpedo. Captain Walter's reply was: "I, sir. We are responsible." Walter assured Iowa that it was just an accident.
The convoy continued on to Africa, but the Willie D was ordered to Port Hamilton in Bermuda. There he was met by heavily armed Marines, who took the entire crew under arrest, to the last man - the only case in the history of the American Navy! The crew was interrogated, finding out what it was? A mere accident or part of a larger conspiracy to disrupt the conferences? After several days of interrogation, torpedoman third class Leighton Dawson confessed that he had forgotten to remove the primer from the torpedo tube. After the machine fired unexpectedly, Dawson panicked and threw the used primer overboard.
So, there was no conspiracy, just the crew of the Porter screwed up in a big way. But "Willy D" nearly killed the president, so someone had to be punished. The captain and several other officers were transferred to supernumerary positions, and the twenty-two-year-old Dawson was sentenced to fourteen years of hard labor, but Roosevelt stood up for him, and the torpedo operator was simply fired from the armed forces.
Similar mistakes have happened to many ships manned by inexperienced crews, but the Porter case is perhaps the most famous. The ship received the apt nickname "The stupid republican" - "Stupid Republican".
After the crew returned to the ship, the command decided to send the "Republican" somewhere where he could not do anything outstanding. On December 24, Porter, having passed the Panama Canal and refueled in San Francisco, arrived at the port of Dutch Harbor, on the island of Unalaksha, one of the Aleutian Islands. The patrols were interspersed with training, and during one of the rare breaks, a drunk sailor who returned from his leave of absence decided that he wanted to shoot from big guns"Willie Dee". And he did it before anyone could stop him. A five-inch shell landed right in the base commander's yard, bringing some excitement to the party that was taking place there, to which the officers and their wives were invited. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the fleet was once again convinced that it was worth staying away from the Willie D.
January 1944 "Porter" spent in the Philippines, repelling raids Japanese aviation, and in March 1945 went to Okinawa. He covered landing operations, provided air defense and anti-aircraft defense capital ships. From April 1 to May 5, "Willy Dee" fired 8500 shells of the main caliber. He shot down several Japanese planes and three American ones, and during the repulsion of one of the attacks, the DD-522 Luce sistership was so riddled that it raised the signal "Don't shoot at us, we are also Republicans."
On June 10, 1945, the Porter was on a radar picket, waiting to be relieved. At 8.15 in the morning, the Val, which had taken literally from nowhere, dived onto the ship. The Americans already knew well who the kamikazes were, and Porter fought back as best he could. It almost ended in success: the plane fell into the water before reaching the side of the ship. But the speed of the "Val" was so great that by inertia it went under water to the very "Willy Dee" and exploded exactly under the keel. Water went to the engine and boiler rooms, the ship was left without electricity and without means to fight for damage. For three hours, the team unsuccessfully tried to save the Willie Dee. The captain gave the order to abandon the ship twelve minutes before it capsized and sank.

The American missile destroyer USS Porter DDG-78 entered the port of Odessa on Sunday morning, July 8. At 10:30 he moored at the 16th berth of the sea station.

The ship will take part in the annual Sea Breeze naval exercises. It should be noted that a few months ago, the Porter carried out a combat mission in the Mediterranean Sea: launches of Tomahawk cruise missiles were carried out from its side at Syrian infrastructure facilities.

Missile destroyer USS "Porter" (DDG-78) - 28th ship of the class "Arleigh Burke" (" Arleigh Burke") US Navy. The main armament of the destroyer is 90 missile launchers, which can contain anti-aircraft and anti-submarine missiles, as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles. The ship's weapons are controlled by the Aegis system. In 2013, the ship was upgraded, now it is capable of carry SM-3 missiles designed to combat ballistic missiles and satellites in Earth orbit.

The destroyer is named after the famous American dynasty naval officers, in particular Commander (Captain Second Rank) David Porter and his son, Admiral David Dixon Porter. The first distinguished himself during the Anglo-American War of 1812, the second was the superintendent of the US Naval Academy (Annapolis) during civil war 1861-1865.

Main characteristics
Displacement 6783 long tons, 8915 long tons (gross)
Length 153.92 m (maximum), 142.3 m (at the waterline)
Width 20, 1 m., 18.0 m (at the waterline)
Draft 9.4 m (with HAS), 7.3 m (without HAS)
Booking no
Engines 4 General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines
Power 108 000 l. with.
Propeller 2 propellers
Travel speed 32 knots (maximum)
Cruising range 4400 miles at 20 knots.
Crew 337 (including 23 officers)

Armament
tactical strike weapons 2 launchers of the Aegis system for 29 (bow) and 61 (stern) missile cells, respectively. AT different combination can be armed: KR "Tomahawk" Tomahawk, ZUR RIM-66 SM-2 "Standard-2", PLUR RUM-139 ASROC
Artillery 1*1 127 mm. AU Mark 45. Mod. 3/54 cal., 600 rounds
Flak 2 6-barrel 20 mm. ZAU "Phalanx"
Missile weapons 2*4 RCC Harpoon
up to 74 RIM-66 SM-2 "Standard-2" missiles
Anti-submarine weapons PLUR RUM-139 ASROC
Mine and torpedo armament 2 * 3 324 mm. TA Mk. 32 (torpedoes Mk.46 and Mk.50)
Aviation group 1 helicopter SH-60 LAMPS, no hangar

More than 70 years ago as part of naval forces The United States served a twin-tube destroyer with the name "William D. Porter"(DD-579). The ship was no different from dozens of Fletcher-class destroyers mass-produced during World War II. Entered service in 1943; an experienced officer, Lieutenant Commander Wilfred Walter, was appointed its commander.

In November 1943 "Willy Dee"(as the destroyer was familiarly called in sailor circles) was ordered to leave the naval base in Norfolk and join the escort battleship"Iowa", on which US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt went at the head of the American delegation to the Tehran Conference.

Departing from the pier, "Willy Dee" collided with the destroyer of the same type and, with a grinding noise, moving along the neighbor's side, tore off his rails, boat, trawls and life rafts with his anchor.

Touching up the tattered side, "William D. Porter" finally joined the escort of the battleship, and the connection ("Iowa" and three destroyers) went into the Atlantic. Given the threat from German U-boats, radio silence was ordered. Suddenly, the calm navigation of the marching order was disturbed by a strong explosion.

The escort ships switched to an anti-submarine zigzag. Anti-torpedo maneuvers continued until the Willie D semaphored that it was just one of her depth charges, which, accidentally falling off the rack, fell overboard and exploded. The wave raised by the explosion washed away everything that was not properly secured from the stern, as well as one of the sailors, who could not be saved.

Then, for some unknown reason, an accident occurred in the car. After some time, the steam pressure in one of the boilers dropped, etc., etc. Almost every hour, more and more accidents were reported from the Willie Dee to the flagship. It was shaped way of the cross, and probably no one would have condemned the commander of the formation if he had sent the ill-fated destroyer back to Norfolk.

The morning of November 14, 1943 was sunny and warm. The ocean calmly rolled its waves under a cloudless sky. As the Iowa escorted past Bermuda, President Roosevelt and his entourage expressed a desire to see what it would look like to repel an enemy air raid. The commander of the battleship ordered that weather balloons be launched into the air, the cylinders of which were supposed to serve as targets for anti-aircraft gunners.

As eyewitnesses recalled, the spectacle turned out to be impressive. Still - by balloons fired more than a hundred guns of various calibers. The President, who watched the course of the exercises, could well be proud of the power of his fleet.

From the William D. Porter, Lieutenant Commander Walter watched the anti-aircraft exercise, thinking hard about how to alleviate the negative impression caused by the depth charge explosion.

To show off with the best side he also announced combat alert. The destroyer's gunners opened fire on the balloons, and the rest of the crew began to prepare for a simulated torpedo attack on the Iowa battleship, which majestically cut through the ocean surface a few miles from the Willie D.

Two torpedomen were ordered to remove propellant charges (primers) from the torpedo tubes. However, evil fate stubbornly did not want to leave the destroyer alone: ​​one of the sailors, for a completely inexplicable reason, forgot to remove the primer from the torpedo tube of the torpedo tube. In the meantime, the commander of the mine-torpedo unit gave the order to fire a volley and began the countdown: “First - fire! The second - whoop! The third - cry!

He didn’t have time to command “Fourth - cry!”, As everyone heard the characteristic pop of a cannon shot and saw a deadly cigar. Lieutenant Seward Lewis, who was watching everything that was happening from the upper bridge, in a voice breaking with excitement, asked the commander if he had given the order for live torpedo firing.

The lieutenant-commander froze, terrified, when he saw the white-foamed torpedo breaker, as if nothing had happened, rushed towards the battleship on board which was the president. Panic broke out on the bridge of the Willie Dee. Showered chaotic, contradictory to one another team. Everyone understood that the main thing now was to warn the battleship of the impending danger.

They decided to break the radio silence order, but the radio operator on the Iowa did not work for reception. And precious seconds were gone. Finally, confirmation was received from the battleship that the radiogram was received. The huge ship increased speed and changed course.

The news of the torpedo attack reached the ears of President Roosevelt, who even asked the adjutant to move him forward. wheelchair to the railings in order to be able to personally observe the development of events. Meanwhile, the circulating battleship turned all its guns on the unfortunate William D. Porter, as the command had the idea that the destroyer's crew might be embroiled in a conspiracy to attempt on the life of the US President.

A minute later, an explosion thundered behind the stern of the battleship: the torpedo detonated in the water of the Iowa's wake, foamed by propellers. Everyone on her bridge breathed a sigh of relief. The crisis, which threatened with unpredictable consequences, has ended, and with it, several seafaring careers that looked very promising.

To persistent inquiries from the battleship, Lieutenant Commander Walter ruefully admitted that the responsibility for the almost tragic incident lay with him and his ship. The destroyer, along with the commander and the entire crew, was declared arrested and sent to the port of Hamilton in Bermuda, where a military court awaited the perpetrators of the fatal incident.

This was the first time in the history of the US Navy that a ship and its entire crew were seized on the high seas.

Arrived at the port of destination "Willy Dee" was immediately surrounded by a cordon marines, and the military court, in its closed sessions, began to find out what happened on board the destroyer on the memorable day of November 14th. After several interrogations, the torpedo operator Lawton Dawson confessed that he had mistakenly left a propellant charge in the torpedo tube, the ignition of which led to the launch of the torpedo.

When the truth was finally found out, the commission of inquiry recognized everything that happened as the result of an incredible combination of circumstances and, just in case, classified both the results of the investigation and the fact of the incident itself. Lieutenant Commander Walter, his assistant, and several other officers from the destroyer were transferred as a punishment to supernumerary coastal positions, and Dawson was dismissed from the Navy and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

However, President Roosevelt intervened and the convict was pardoned.

Unfortunately, the further history of the destroyer "William D. Porter" was replete with inexplicable incidents and accidents. When the ship was sent on patrol in the waters surrounding the Aleutian archipelago, before taking up combat watch, it mistakenly (but with great accuracy) landed a projectile of its main caliber on the location of the headquarters of the American garrison on one of the islands.

Arriving later in the Okinawa region, "Willy Dee" as an air defense ship of the landing forces shot down several Japanese and three ... of their own aircraft.

After that, the American pilots, in order to avoid misfortune, preferred to bypass the fatal destroyer. The crew of the Lewis ship of the same type (DD-522) was convinced that this was a very useful precaution, whose side and superstructures of the Willie Dee were riddled with fire from their anti-aircraft artillery, trying to shoot down a Japanese aircraft.

On June 10, 1945, while the William D. Porter was on anti-aircraft duty, a Japanese dive bomber broke through the long-range defense line. It was a kamikaze loaded with bombs, targeting a large transport that was next to the destroyer.

The plane, struck by anti-aircraft fire, veered off course at the last moment and fell into the sea near the side of the Willy Dee. However, before the sailors had time to congratulate each other on their unprecedented luck, as if under the keel of the destroyer thundered powerful explosion: the downed Japanese pilot still managed to avenge his death.

The William D. Porter began to quickly fill with water, listing to starboard. Three hours later, the commander of the damaged destroyer, along with the crew, boarded the approaching landing barge. The ship that almost changed the course of world history sank at a depth of about 800 meters off the coast of the distant island of Okinawa.

Thus ended the incredible, full of unresolved mysteries, the story of the destroyer "William D. Porter".

• Syndrome of a person who brings misfortune
• "My son has been haunted by some evil forces since birth"
• Ghosts of the schooner "Charles Heskell"

USS Porter (DDG-78)- destroyer URO type "Arleigh Burke". Built at the Ingalls Shipbuilding shipyard, assigned to the Norfolk Marine Station, Virginia. Assigned to 2nd Squadron, US Atlantic Fleet.

combat service

During the transition to the location of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain on the night of August 11-12, 2012, the destroyer USS Porter collided in Persian Gulf near Strait of Hormuz with the Japanese oil tanker Otowasan sailing under the flag of Panama. As noted on the official website of the US Navy, the ship has not lost its ability to move independently. The collision occurred around 01:00 local time on August 12, 2012.

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