Edson (DD 946) - Naval Cruise Book

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SS EDSO DD 946 HIP HISTGRY V The EDSON is too young to have a history but is fortunate to have a tradition. She was built in Bath, Maine, The cradle of ships, and named for a great Marine General whose ability as a fighting man is a legend. She is a flagship of the Little Beaver squadron which a Captain named Arleigh Burke commanded in World War ll. Though we may not yet have a history, we have a story to tell. Our story is the story of men. Those who went to Bath to watch her building. Those who went to Newport and drilled and studied to get ready for this new super-destroyer. On 31 October, two hundred of us stood on a pier in Boston and saw her swing into harbor. We witnessed the formal delivery of the ship to the Navy in the exchange of papers by a man in civilian clothes and a man in uniform. We were herded on board and whisked below by the old salts who had ridden her down from Maine. One week later, on a wind-washed No- vember day the commission pennant was hoisted and ours was a ship of the Navy. For the next two months we trained and fitted-out. We polished bright work, waxed decks, and loaded tons of supplies. Then on a bitter lanuary day we took her to sea and operated off Boston for two weeks in weath- er that would make a mud-caked GI feel sorry for a sailor. 1 After a stop in N ewport-the first of many inspections-we headed South, out of the