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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 102811:  USS Sigourney off the Boston Navy Yard, 9 September 1943

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

USS Sigourney (DD-643), 1943-1975

USS Sigourney, a 2050-ton Fletcher class destroyer built at Bath, Maine, was commissioned in late June 1943. She transited the Panama Canal early in the autumn, arriving in the south Pacific in time to participate in the Bougainville landings at the beginning of November. While off that island in the middle of that month, she helped rescue survivors of the torpedoed fast transport McKean. During the first five months of 1944 Sigourney remained in the Solomons and Bismarcks, escorting convoys, conducting sweeps against Japanese shipping, shelling enemy positions ashore and participating in amphibious operations.

In mid-1944 Sigourney moved into the central Pacific, where she took part in the invasions of Saipan and Tinian, followed by landings in the Palaus in September and at Leyte in October. When the Japanese Navy counter-attacked on 24 October, she was present during the Battle of Surigao Strait. Operations in the Philippines and the East Indies kept her busy during November and December 1944 and in January-April 1945. Returning to the U.S. for overhaul in May, she was still in shipyard hands when World War II's fighting ended in mid-August. A few months later Sigourney steamed back to the East Coast, where she was decommissioned in March 1946.

Greatly increased Cold War tensions brought Sigourney back into commission in September 1951. Though assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, she made a Far Eastern deployment during the last half of 1953, steaming westward around the World in the process. Between 1954 and 1957 the destroyer visited European waters several times and in 1959 was assigned to Naval Reserve training. Decommissioned at the beginning of May 1960, USS Sigourney was in "mothballs" with the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until stricken from the list of Naval vessels in late 1974. She was sold for scrapping in July 1975.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Sigourney (DD-643).


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 102811

USS Sigourney
(DD-643)

Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 9 September 1943.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 102799

USS Sigourney
(DD-643)

Underway during the early or middle 1950s.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 102798

USS Sigourney
(DD-643)

Underway in San Diego Harbor, California, probably in mid-1953.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 114KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 


The following photographs show USS Sigourney distantly, as one of a group of ships:

Photo #: NH 79480

USS Plover
(MSCO-33)

Awaiting disposal while laid up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania, 20 January 1969.
The minesweeper alongside her is probably USS Lorikeet (MSCO-49).
Among the ship in the center background are USS Sigourney (DD-643) -- 2nd destroyer from left in the middle distance -- and USS Salamonie (AO-26) -- in the far distance.

Courtesy of David Hahn, 1974.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 117KB; 610 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 102800

Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania


Ships laid up in the shipyard's Reserve Basin while awaiting disposal, circa March 1974.
Outboard ships are (from left to right center):
ex-USS Norris (DD-859);
USS Sigourney (DD-643); and
ex-USS Stockdale (DE-390);

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 


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


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Page made 11 March 2005