Keel Laid - June 25, 1937
Launched - May 5, 1938

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USS ROWAN DD-405 Launching

Commissioned - September 23, 1939
Sank September 11, 1943
ARMAMENT
Main Battery - Four Single Barrel 5"
Antiaircraft Battery - Four .50 Cal Machine Guns
Torpedo Battery - Sixteen 21" Torpedo Tubes
Displacement - 1,850 tons
Length - 340 feet 9 inch
Beam - 35 feet 6 inch
Draft - 12 feet 10 inch
Complement - 175
Speed - 38.5 knots
Engines - 50,000 shaft horse power, twin screws

Benham class destroyer

The ROWAN saw wartime action in the Atlantic.

The third ROWAN (DD-405) was sponsored by Miss Elizabeth H. Rowan, great-granddaughter of Vice Admiral Rowan; Lt. Comdr. B. R. Harrison, Jr in command.

After shakedown in the Caribbean, ROWAN departed Norfolk on 17 May 1940 for duty in the Pacific, based at San Diego. During the spring of 1941, however, U.S. involvement in the war in Europe increased. In May the limits of the Neutrality Patrol were extended and the Navy gradually expanded its responsibilities for protecting transatlantic convoys.

At the end of the month, ROWAN was transferred to the Atlantic and assigned to the Neutrality Patrol. Through the spring and summer, she ranged from Newfoundland to the Caribbean. Then, in early November, she was ordered to escort Convoy WS-12X, carrying British reinforcements for the Near and Far East, from Halifax to Capetown.

Sailing from Halifax on 10 November, she reached Capetown on 9 December, 2 days after the United States entered World War II. In January 1942 , she returned to the east coast of the United States and resumed convoy duty in the North Atlantic, and the Caribbean. On 30 April she sailed east from Halifax to escort another convoy to the midocean rendezvous point. Upon departing the convoy on 10 May, she proceeded to Hvalfjordur, Iceland, and on the 11th joined TF 99, which was acting as a part of the Bristish Home Fleet based at Hvalfjordur and Scapa Flow.

At midmonth, she completed a "north about Circuit" to Seydisjordur, whence she patrolled, with TF 99. 150 miles east of the routes of convoys PQ-16 and QP-12 to intercept any German units which might sortie from Norway to destroy the convoys. The first convoy was bound for the north of Russia, the second on return from there.

On the 29th, TF 99 put into Scapa Flow and on 12 June got underway to return to Iceland and repeat its previous mission for convoy PQ-17 and QP-13. The latter had lost four merchantmen on its northward run and would lose, on its return, five more before reaching Reykjavik. Berlin had ordered the former, comprising 35 merchantmen, annihilated by a combined air-surface-submarine operation, "Rosselsprung".

PQ-17 departed Iceland on 27 June. Two days later the cruiser covering force, to which, ROWAN was attached, moved around to Seydisfjordur, whence they sortied on 1 July. On 2 July, ROWAN was detached and assigned to PQ-17. That convoy, shadowed by German reconnaissance planes despite heavy fog, had already lost two freighter; one grounded and the other damaged by ice and ordered back.

As ROWAN approached the convoy, the Luftwaffe moved in. ROWAN shot down one of the attackers. No ships were lost. On the 3rd, the weather protected the convoy from bomber attack. Early on the 4th, however, the enemy planes began to penetrate through the fog. A Liberty ship went down shortly after 0300. The raids continued. By late afternoon four more ships had been hit, two of which sank.

Shortly thereafter, the convoy was ordered scattered and the escorts sent to support the cruisers in an anticipated engagement with German heavy units which were to have left the fjords of Norway. The merchantmen of PQ-17 steamed north, independently. Eleven ships got through to Russia.

ROWAN, ordered to rejoin the cruisers on the 4th, returned to Iceland with that force on the 7th. On the 13th, her division, DesDiv 16, was relieved and on the 14th she headed back to the United States. Overhaul at Boston followed and in mid-August she resumed convoy escort duty with a run to Panama. In September, she trained and conducted patrols out of Norfolk, VA. and Portland Maine; then, in October joined TF 34 for Operation "Torch," the invasion of North Africa.

On 7 November, she arrived off Fedhala with the assault force. Through the 9th she screened the transports. On the 10th, she patrolled off Casablanca and participated in action against Vichy ships attempting to turn back the invasion, On the 11th, she resumed screening in the transport area, and on the 12th she got underway to return to the United States.

Between December 1942 and April 1943, ROWAN escorted two reinforcement and resupply convoys to Casablanca. On the second trip out, UGS-6, five merchantmen were lost to a wolfpack in 4 days, 13 to 17 March. In May the destroyer completed her last transatlantic run. At the end of the month, she joined TF 80 at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, and for the next month conducted ASW patrols and escorted convoys along the North African coast.

On 10 July, the invasion of Sicily began. On the 11th ROWAN arrived off the coast in the screen of a reinforcement convoy and commenced patrols off Gala. After the 20th, she shifted around to the northern shore and assumed patrol and escort work in the Palermo area. On the 26th she added shore bombardment, against enemy positions between Cefalu and Stefano di Camastra, and into August she supported the"leap frog" landings along the coast. She then returned to North Africa to prepare for the landings on the Italian mainland at Salerno.

On the night of 10-11 September, ROWAN was escorting a convoy from the Salerno beachhead back to Oran, when attacked by German E-Boats. During the midnight engagement the ROWAN was struck by a torpedo in her number 3 magazine, port side, aft. She exploded and sunk in 40 seconds taking 204 of her 275 man crew down with her. The 71 survivors were rescued by the
USS BRISTOL (DD-453).

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