Sterett (CG 31) - Naval Cruise Book

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r?,5.., n F' ,. I . I ,R .SUV 5? 'P' f THE FIRST STERETT CDD 275 The first STERETT IDD 271 was commissioned at Boston, on I5 December 1910. Lieutenant Robert L. Berry commanding. She had a length of two hundred and ninety-three feet, eleven inches a beam of twent . y- seven feet, a displacement of seven hundred and forty-two tons, a mean draft of eight feet. four inches. a designed speed of twenty-nine knots, and a complement of four officers and eighty-five enlisted men. She was armed with five, three-inch fifty-caliber guns, three, thirty-caliber machine guns and six. eighteen-inch torpedo tubes. STERETT was assigned to the Ninth Torpedo Division, Atlantic Torpedo Fleet, and patrolled the east coast and the Gulf of Mexico out of Boston, Charleston, and Galveston. She covered the landing of U.S. Marines in the Dominican Republic on l June l9l6 during a revolutionary uprising. When the United States entered World War I on 6 April 1918, STERETT was one of the first ships to sail overseas. For the duration of the war. she was homeported at Queenstown, Ireland and operated along the Irish coast meeting incoming convoys and Shepherding them along the coast to Berehaven Isle or Davenport. England. For her relentless pursuit of a Ger- man submarine on the evening of 3l May l9l8, STERETT earned a commendation from the Commander-im Chief, Coast of Ireland. After the signing of the armistice on ll November l9l8. STERETT sailed to Philadelphia where she was decommissioned on 9 December l9l9. She was sold for scrapping on 28 June 1935. 9

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LT ANDREW STERETT Lieutenant Andrew Sterett was born on 27 January 1778 in Baltimore, Maryland. He entered the Navy as a lieutenant on 25 March 1798 and served as the third lieutenant on board CONSTlil.-l..A'I'lON. the first of the new frigates commissioned by the newly established Department of the Navy. ln the quasi-war with France, Sterett commanded a battery of CONSTELLATION's guns on 9 February 1799 in the defeat of the French frigate L'INSURGENTE. Sterett was first lieutenant on board CONSTELLATION on 1 February 1800 when she defeated the powerful French frigate LA VENGEANCE. ln May 1800 Sterett left CON- STELLATION to serve as first lieutenant on the frigate PRESIDENT. On 27 October 1800 Sterett took command of the schooner 4'Lucky Little ENTERPRISE in which he captured the French privateer LA AMOUR DE LA PATRIE and defeated the French privateer LE CITOYEN. After the close of the quasi-war, Sterett sailed ENTERPRISE to the Mediterranean to protect American merchant shipping from the pirate cruisers of Tripoli. On l August 1801 ENTERPRISE engaged the Tripoli- tan warship TRIPOLI off the coast of Malta. In fierce combat, ENTERPRISE disabled TRIPOLI and direct- ed her to make to the nearest port. After the battle, President Thomas Jefferson presented a sword to Sterett for his heroism and rewarded the crew of the ENTERPRISE with an extra month's pay. On 6 February 1802, Sterett again sailed to Tripoli, this time to blockade the coast and to protect a merchant convov along the coast of Spain to Gibraltar. Cn 17 January 1803 Sterett captured the ship PA ULINA which attempted to transport cargo from Malta into the port of Tripoli under the Imperial flag of the Bev of Tunis. Sterett remarked to her crew, Go tell the Bashaw of Tripoli and the people of your countrv that in the future they may expect only a tribute of powder and ball from the sailors of the United States. I Sterett was relieved in March 1803 and returned to the United States. I-le received permission to make El merchant voyage to India, but was shipwrecked enroute. Rescued from the wreck 'ind tr tns worted to lisbtln. he returned home in the spring of 1805. After receiving orders to fit out the brig llORNile- l'Iin Bwltitnore. he resigned from the Navy on 5 July 1805 and joined the merchant marine. He died in 1 itirt Peru on 9 lllnt? 1807. ' ' ' '

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THE SECOND STERETT tDD 4077 The second STERETT CDD 4075 was commissioned at Charleston on I5 August I939, Lieutenant Comman- der Atherton Macondray commanding. She had an overall length ol' three huntlred and forty-one feet. a beam gf thirty-five feet, six inches, a displacement of one thousand seven hundred and twenty-live tons. a mean draft of ten feet, nine inches, a designed speed of thirty eight and a hall' knots, and a complement ol' nine officers and one hundred and seventy five enlisted men. She was armed with tour, live-inch, thirty-eight-caliber guns. four, fifty-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and sixteen, twenty-one inch torpedo tubes. In the fall of 1939 STERETT operated on neutrality patrol in the Atlantic Ocean. Alter the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, she sailed to the North Atlatnic to convoy transports ol' the lirst American lixpeditionary Force bound for the British Isles. STERETT returned to the U.S. in May I9-42 and was transt'erred to the Pacific Fleet. Operating in the Western Pacific, she provided escort services for transports and cargo ships in suppon of operations in the Solomon Islands. On 12 November l942 at the Naval Battle ol' Guadalcanal. she defended Henderson Field against a Japanese raiding force. On 6 August IQ43, S'l'lCRlC'I l' and live sister destroyers sank three of four Japanese destroyers in the Battle of Vella Gulf. up-W, '34 1 0 - 1 V L Lai' 'mr W 11:1 Haifa, we W , ,a-qw ,g fy W 3 A , ,A ' A A - fr' i , W ,pf g no wdni f L Q ,Ml I ' .rj af WW ' irfa.'fM..re , , r - '.,,, , gig, Y , Mm ,Q