USS Mason (DE-529)
 USS Mason in August 1944 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Keel laying | October 14, 1943 |
| Launch | November 17, 1943 |
| Namesake | Newton Henry Mason |
| 1. Period of service |
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|
| Commissioning | March 20, 1944 |
| Decommissioning | October 12, 1945 |
| Removed from ship register | November 1, 1945 |
| Whereabouts | scrapped |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
1140 ts |
| length |
88.2 m |
| width |
10.7 m |
| height |
27.4 m (mast) |
| Draft |
2.5 m |
| crew |
156 |
| drive |
4 GM Model 16-278A diesel engines , 6000 hp, two propellers |
| speed |
21 kn |
| Range |
6000 nm at 12 kn |
| Armament |
|
The USS Mason (DE-529) was a destroyer escort of the United States Navy and belonged to the Evarts class . The ship, which was in service in 1944 and 1945, was the first ship in the US Navy, whose crew consisted largely of African Americans .
history
_in_Boston,_20_March_1944.jpg)
The destroyer escort USS Mason was laid down as the second ship of that name on October 14, 1943 in the Boston Navy Yard . After just under a month of construction on the slipway , the ship, christened by the mother of the namesake Ensign Newton Henry Mason , was launched on November 17, 1943. After completion of the equipment work, the destroyer escort was put into service on March 20, 1944 under the command of LCdr William M. Blackford, USNR. The construction cost was about $ 5 million.
In contrast to other ships on which African Americans only worked as laundrettes, auxiliary cooks or stewards, the entire lower ranks in all departments on board the USS Mason were of African American origin. Only NCOs and officers were "white". These ranks did not become available to African Americans until early 1944.
After the “shakedown cruise”, the first test drive off Bermuda , the Mason left Charleston , South Carolina on June 14th to accompany a convoy to Europe. The association ran across the Azores to Belfast , from where the Mason returned to the US east coast and entered Boston on August 2nd. The destroyer escort spent August 1944 escorting ships off the US coast.
On September 2, the Mason entered New York City , from where it accompanied convoy NY 119 across the Atlantic. Despite heavy seas and stormy weather, the ship arrived in Falmouth with some units of the convoy on October 18 . From Plymouth , the Mason returned to New York via the Azores, where it arrived on November 22nd. On December 17, the ship was assigned to Task Force 64 in Norfolk , with which the Mason left port two days later with a convoy going into the Mediterranean . On January 4, 1945, the destroyer left the unit off Gibraltar and a day later ran at Oran in Algeria .
Together with Task Group 60.11, the Mason Oran left for the United States on January 7th. Four days after leaving port, a surface target was identified on the radar, which the destroyer escorted rammed and fought with depth charges. The alleged submarine turned out to be a driftwood accumulation. On January 19, the ship entered Saint George’s in Bermuda, where minor damage was repaired. Five days later, the Mason reached the New York Navy Yard .
Another escort mission into the Mediterranean followed on February 12th from Norfolk. On February 28, the convoy arrived in Gibraltar, from where the Mason ran again to Oran. The Mason left Algeria on March 8th, together with a convoy that ran across Bermuda into Chesapeake Bay , and returned to New York on March 24th. This was followed by sonar exercises off New London , Connecticut and fighter guidance exercises with naval aviators off Quonset Point , Rhode Island . On April 10, the destroyer escort left Norfolk with another convoy, whose escort he ended off Gibraltar on April 28. Two days after the Mason left Algeria, the German surrender was announced on May 9th .
After returning to New York on May 23, the ship was used on the east coast, between July 28 and August 18, the Mason was assigned to the Naval Training Center in Miami , Florida , as a training ship. On August 20, the ship entered New London, Connecticut, where it was equipped for underwater transmission tests in the Bermuda area. The tests lasted until September 1945, on September 8th the Mason left Bermuda and entered Charleston, South Carolina two days later.
The USS Mason was decommissioned on October 12, 1945, and its name was removed from the Navy's shipping registers on November 1. On March 18, 1947, the hull was sold to Mr. Thomas Harris for scrapping.
literature
- Mary Pat Kelly: Proudly We Served: The Men of the USS Mason . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1995, ISBN 1-55750-453-9 .
- Mansel G. Blackford (Ed.): On Board the USS Mason: The World War II Diary of James A. Dunn . Ohio State University Press, Columbus OH 1996. ISBN 0-8142-0698-0 ( digitized version on the publisher's pages in full access)
Web links
- ussmason.org (Eng.)
- History of Mason in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- Pictures of the Mason in the Naval Historical Center
Individual evidence
- ↑ navalhistory.com , as of February 7, 2009
- ↑ ussmason.org: Specifications ( Memento of October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), as of February 15, 2008
- ↑ ussmason.org: USS Mason takes a captain ( Memento of October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), as of February 15, 2009
- ^ African-Americans and the US Navy - The “Golden Thirteen” , as of February 15, 2009