USS Slater

Sunday, 1 November, 2020. Moored portside to, Albany Snow Dock, Hudson River, Albany, New York. Taking all utilities from shore. Plant is still very cold iron. Photo by Shanna Schuster.

Seventy-five years ago today, 1 November 1945, several destroyer escorts were decommissioned or struck from the Naval Vessel Register. Among them was the Evarts class HMS FOLEY. She was originally contracted on 25 January 1942, and on 23 February 1942 was given the name USS GILLETTE. On 7 April 1943, her keel was laid at the Boston Navy Yard, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. She was launched on 19 May 1943. However, on 14 June 1943, she was allocated to the Royal Navy, and rena...med HMS FOLEY (K.474). The decision was made to send the east coast construction EVARTS to England, and keep the West Coast construction ships for USN use. On 08 September 1943, she was christened by Mrs. Laura K. Owens, and officially transferred to Royal Navy, with Lcdr. Donald Emberton Mansfield, RNVR, in command. Following the Bermuda shakedown and workup in England, she was assigned to the B-4 Escort Group, a mixed group of sloops and frigates that included two destroyer escorts, FOLEY and BAYNTUN. FOLEY escorted 23 convoys between November 1943 and November 1944, operating from places like Liverpool, Halifax, Freetown, and Clyde. While escorting Convoy SL139 from Sierra Leone to Liverpool, on 15 November, the convoy position was located by Nazi aircraft. Then the convoy was attacked by U-boats of the Schill 1 group. On the 18th, the sloop, HMS CHANTICLEER, was hit by a T5 acoustic torpedo from U-515. The group hunted for ten hours for U-515 without success. CHANTICLEER was towed to Punta Delgado and declared a constructive total loss. FOLEY’s moment of action came on 21 November 1943. She joined the British sloop, HMS CRANE, in a depth-charge attack that sank the German submarine, U-538, in the North Atlantic, southwest of Ireland. Records show her last convoy was ONS-035 , Liverpool to Halifax, which she joined on 30 October 1944, and left on 1 November 1944. There is no record of her activity through the end of the war. The Royal Navy returned FOLEY to the U.S. Navy at Harwich, England, on 22 August 1945. As there was no ship named FOLEY in the US Navy, the ship was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as USS FOLEY (DE-270), with Lieutenant S. M. Strauss, USNR, in command, on 22 August 1945, simultaneously with her return. She moved to Trinity Bay on 28 August 1945, and on 29 August 1945, departed Trinity Bay as a part of Task Group 21.3. She crossed the Atlantic Ocean, called briefly at Naval Station Argentia in the Dominion of Newfoundland, and arrived at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 10 September 1945. She remained there until decommissioned on 19 October 1945. The U.S. Navy struck FOLEY from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 November 1945. She was sold on 19 June 1946 for scrapping.

This November, if you make a donation to USS SLATER in honor of a veteran. We will list their name on our website, and send you a post card from one of our favorite veterans. You will also have the chance to win SLATER merchandise. You can make a donation online (ussslater.org), in person, over the phone or through the mail.

Saturday, 31 October, 2020. Halloween aboard USS SLATER.

We won't be able to host a Veteran's Day Ceremony this year, but we'd love to collect questions from you! If you have a question for one of our volunteers (or if a student you know does) please send them to us!

We've got a special deal for you today in our online Ship's Store! Buy a new red SLATER ballcap and save 5% when you use code REDHAT. Hurry this deal only lasts through Saturday! USSSLATER.org

This is significant, and worth reposting on Oxi Day.

Happy Oxi Day to our Greek friends!

Thanks for the reminder Warren!

Monday, 26 October 2020. It was a cold raw day on the river, as the shipfitters began to drain down the fresh water aboard the ship, and the deck gang started working on the new mooring lines.

On this day in 1997 SLATER arrived in Albany! Check out this blast from the past! Thanks for the support for the last 23 years! Here's to many more.

October 25th belongs to one special ship. Seventy-six years ago today, USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (DE-413), under the command of LCDR Robert Copeland, was destroyed in the Battle off Samar. She had departed Manus on 12 October 1944. Then she joined Rear Adm. Ralph A. Ofstie’s escort carriers, KITKUN BAY (CVE-71) and GAMBIER BAY (CVE-73), guarded by SAMUEL B. ROBERTS, JOHN C. BUTLER (DE-339), DENNIS (DE-405), and RAYMOND (DE-341). After screening transports and amphibious ships saf...Continue reading