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." |
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The following photographs show USS Sigourney distantly, as one of a group of ships:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 11 March 2005