Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 101669:  USS Mayrant at anchor with painters over the side, circa 1939-1941

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Mayrant (DD-402), 1939-1948

USS Mayrant, a 1500-ton Benham class destroyer, was built at the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts. She was placed in commission in September 1939 and, during the following year, twice served as an escort to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he inspected defense preparations along the U.S. coast and in the Caribbean. In 1941, as the U.S. drew closer to active participation in World War II, she was present during the August conference between President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill, and was employed on escort duties.

Her convoy escort service continued after the U.S. formally entered the conflict in December 1941. In the spring and early summer of 1942 Mayrant operated with the British Home Fleet and, in November, she played an active role in the invasion of Morocco. Following several more months of convoy work, in July 1943 Mayrant took part in the assault on Sicily. While off Palermo on 26 July she was badly damaged by a German air attack, suffering the loss of five of her crew, and had to be towed to Malta for temporary repairs.

Permanent repairs, at Charleston, South Carolina, took until May 1944, after which Mayrant was again assigned to East Coast and trans-Atlantic escort service. In April 1945 she helped save the torpedoed freighter Atlantic States. A month later Mayrant was sent to join the war against Japan, escorting shipping in the central Pacific until the fighting ended in mid-August. Later in that month she took part in the surrender of Japanese forces on Marcus Island.

Following air-sea rescue assignments in the Marshalls and Marianas, Mayrant steamed to the U.S. West Coast late in 1945, only to return to the central Pacific in 1946 to perform her final mission: as a target during the July atomic weapons tests at Bikini. Left radioactive by this experience, USS Mayrant was decommissioned in late August 1946 and sunk off Kwajalein on 4 April 1948.

USS Mayrant was named in honor of Lieutenant John Mayrant (1762-1836), who served in the South Carolina and Continental Navies during the American Revolution.

This page features all the views we have concerning of USS Mayrant (DD-402).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 101669

USS Mayrant
(DD-402)

At anchor with painters over the side, circa 1939-1941.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 101670

USS Mayrant
(DD-402)

At anchor with painters over the side, circa 1939-1941.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 67KB; 580 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 67631

USS Mayrant
(DD-402)

Photographed in 1939-1940.

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 455 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 60291

USS Mayrant
(DD-402)

Escorting President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his summer 1940 inspection of East Coast defenses.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 60292

USS Mayrant
(DD-402)

Leaving Miami, Florida, while escorting President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his summer 1940 inspection of East Coast defenses.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-30422

North African Invasion
, November 1942

A salvo from the French El Hank Battery misses USS Mayrant (DD-402) during the Battle of Casablanca, 8 November 1942.
Photographed from USS Augusta (CA-31).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 


The following photographs were taken from USS Mayrant:

Photo #: 80-G-K-2134 (Color)

USS Massachusetts (BB-59)

Maneuvering off Casablanca, Morocco, during the North Africa invasion, 8 November 1942.
Photographed from USS Mayrant (DD-402).
Note that Massachusetts' main battery guns are trained out to port.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 48KB; 740 x 535 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-2133 (Color)

USS Massachusetts (BB-59)

Maneuvering off Casablanca, Morocco, during the North Africa invasion, 8 November 1942.
Photographed from USS Mayrant (DD-402).
Note that Massachusetts is flying two very large national ensigns.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 525 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 20 November 2004