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

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

USS Sampson (DD-394), 1938-1946

USS Sampson, an 1850-ton Somers class destroyer built at Bath, Maine, was commissioned in August 1938. She made a shakedown cruise to Europe, then operated off the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean area until April 1939, when she went to the Pacific. Sampson returned to the Atlantic in July 1940 to undertake Neutrality Patrol service between Newfoundland and the West Indies. As relations with Germany deteriorated in the late summer of 1941 the destroyer began convoy escort duties. She conducted anti-submarine patrols for a month after the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941.

Early in 1942 Sampson was sent to Panama. She spent the next year on escort and patrol service along the western seaboard of Latin America and westward as far as the Society and Galapagos Islands. Begining in May 1943 her convoy escort duties were extended to the southwest Pacific, and she remained in that area beginning in August. Sampson's escort work was punctuated by an attack on a presumed Japanese submarine in early October 1943 and by participation in an air-sea bombardment of Kavieng, New Ireland in March 1944. In April of that year she began a month and a half tour with the Seventh Fleet, taking part in amphibious operations along the northern shore of New Guinea.

Sampson was sent back to the Atlantic in June 1944. Until Germany's surrender some eleven months later she was employed escorting trans-Atlantic convoys, making five round-trip voyages between the U.S. East Coast and the Mediterranean Sea during this time. The destroyer concluded her active career with training duty during the summer of 1945. USS Sampson was placed out of commission at the beginning of November 1945 and was sold for scrapping in March 1946.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Sampson (DD-394).

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

Photo #: NH 67819 USS Sampson (DD-394) Photographed circa the later 1930s. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 455 pixels
Photo #: NH 66342 USS Sampson (DD-394) Tied up alongside a sister ship, circa the later 1930s. Courtesy of the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Ted Stone Collection. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 615 pixels
Photo #: NH 59925 USS Sampson (DD-394) Steaming near USS Saratoga (CV-3), circa 1940. Note the safety net at the side of Saratoga's flight deck, and the TBD-1 torpedo planes parked nearby. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 585 pixels
Photo #: NH 103704 USS Sampson (DD-394) Underway at sea, circa 1939-1940. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 605 pixels
Photo #: NH 103705 USS Sampson (DD-394) Underway in the Gulf of Panama, 14 March 1943. Though the pattern is not visible in this photograph, Sampson is painted in the very pale pattern of Measure 16 (Thayer system) camouflage. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 615 pixels
Photo #: NH 103706 USS Sampson (DD-394) Underway in the Gulf of Panama, 14 March 1943. Halftone reproduction, published by the Division of Naval Intelligence in June 1943 for ship recognition purposes. Sampson is painted in the very pale pattern of Measure 16 (Thayer system) camouflage, which is faintly visible in this view. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 585 pixels
Photo #: NH 103707 USS Sampson (DD-394) Underway in the Gulf of Panama, 14 March 1943. Halftone reproduction, published by the Division of Naval Intelligence in June 1943 for ship recognition purposes. Sampson is painted in the very pale pattern of Measure 16 (Thayer system) camouflage. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 111KB; 740 x 580 pixels
Photo #: NH 103708 USS Sampson (DD-394) Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 27 September 1944. She is wearing Camouflage Design 3D, presumably in Measure 32. However, the darkest tone looks rather light to be the dull black of Measure 32 and might be Measure 33's navy blue. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 615 pixels

USS Sampson is probably the destroyer seen in the following images (one of which is a cropped version of the other):

Photo #: 80-G-K-1117 (cropped) (Color) U.S. Navy ships at Bora Bora, Society Islands A destroyer and a light cruiser in Teavanui Harbor, February 1942. The cruiser (with four smokestacks) is probably USS Trenton (CL-11), and the destroyer is probably USS Sampson (DD-394). Note their camouflage: Measure 12 on the cruiser and the mottled pattern of Measure 12 (Modified) on the destroyer. This image is cropped from Photo # 80-G-K-1117. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 585 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

Photo #: 80-G-K-1117 (Color) Bora Bora, Society Islands U.S. Navy ships in Teavanui Harbor in February 1942. The town of Vaitape is in the left center. The cruiser and destroyer on the right are probably USS Trenton (CL-11) -- with four smokestacks, and USS Sampson (DD-394). An oiler is in the center distance. See Photo # 80-G-K-1117 (cropped) for a version of this image emphasizing the ships on the right. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Sampson (DD-394). The following list features this image:

The image listed below is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Photo #: 80-G-7377 USS Sampson (DD-394) in 1938-1940. Starboard broadside surface view, showing the ship at rest or moving at very low speed. Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The image listed in this box is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

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Page made 5 September 2006