Duncan (DDR 874) - Naval Cruise Book

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USS DUNCAN QDD-4851 emerged to join the Fleet in April, 1942. She eagerly completed her shakedown cruise and with the high expectations of a new Seaman awaiting his first liberty hurried off to the South Pacific. Hopes for a glorious career were heightened when, on the second day after arriving near the Solomon Islands in mid-September, she rescued over seven hundred survivors of the vanquished USS WASP. Ironically this event demands attention, for scarcely four weeks later the new ship itself had become sunken history. Assigned to a task group protecting convoy routes to Guadalcanal, DUNCAN and eight other American warships encountered and battled an angry Japanese column. The time: Near midnight on October ll. In the darkness and confusion of the struggle, DUNCAN charged to meet the enemy unaided but within minutes found herself pinched between the two opposing lines of fire. So bent was she upon attacking, however, that she succeeded in loosing two decisive torpedoes upon an enemy cruiser. Before she could escape, round upon round of Japanese and American fire smashed in upon her, and her young life began to slip away. Rudder jammed left and no way to steer her, engineering plant rapidly losing power, ablaze and finally abandoned by her crew, DUNCAN slowly spiraled from the action and glided toward her death. By noon October 12 she was lost. As the Japanese limped away, 195 of DUNCAN'S sailors waited in the sea for their approaching rescue, their ship and 48 shipmates settled to the bottom. ORY CONIIVIEIVIORATEDQ USS DUNCAN, DD-874 CARRIES ON

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