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USS Otter (DE-210)
Career (US) Flag of the United States
Name: USS Otter (DE-210)
Namesake: Lt. Bethel V. Otter
Ordered: 1942
Builder: Charleston Navy Yard
Laid down: 26 July 1943
Launched: 23 October 1943
Commissioned: 21 February 1944
Decommissioned: January 1947
Honors and
awards:
1 battle star (World War II)
Fate: Sunk as target off Puerto Rico, 10 July 1970
General characteristics
Class & type: Buckley-class destroyer escort
Displacement: 1,400 long tons (1,422 t) light
1,740 long tons (1,768 t) standard
Length: 306 ft (93 m)
Beam: 37 ft (11 m)
Draft: 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) standard
11 ft 3 in (3.43 m) full load
Propulsion: 2 × boilers
General Electric turbo-electric drive
12,000 shp (8.9 MW)
2 × solid manganese-bronze 3,600 lb (1,600 kg) 3-bladed propellers, 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) diameter, 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) pitch
2 × rudders
359 tons fuel oil
Speed: 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range: 3,700 nmi (6,900 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement: 15 officers, 198 men
Armament: • 3 × 3"/50 caliber guns
• 1 × quad 1.1"/75 caliber gun
• 8 × single 20 mm guns
• 1 × triple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
• 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar
• 8 × K-gun depth charge projectors
• 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Otter (DE-210), a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, was named in honor of Lieutenant Bethel V. Otter (1914-1942), who was killed in action on Corregidor on 6 May 1942.

The second Otter was laid down on 26 July 1943 by the Charleston Navy Yard; launched on 23 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. William M. Otter, the mother of Lieutenant Otter; commissioned on 21 February 1944, Lieutenant Commander D. M. Kerr, United States Naval Reserve, in command. Following a Bermuda shakedown, Otter joined the Atlantic Fleet and escorted two carriers to Casablanca, then, for the remainder of the year, she helped protect convoys shuttling from the United States to various Mediterranean ports. Throughout these operations not a single ship was lost.

In December 1944, Otter and three of her sister ships formed a task group to hunt and destroy German U-boats in the middle and north Atlantic. On 16 January 1945, without assistance from aircraft, the group located and sank German submarine U-248. Otter, after playing a crucial role in the depth charge attack, proudly displayed a submarine silhouette on her bridge.

In April, this task group joined a large task force of destroyer escorts and escort carriers patrolling the shipping lanes of the North Atlantic and searching for submarines. During these operations, destroyer escort Frederick C. Davis (DE-136) was torpedoed and sunk, and while other ships of the group engaged and sank U-546, Otter assisted in the rescue of survivors.

Upon the end of the European war, Otter was one of the ships assigned to accept the surrender of German submarines. She intercepted a U-boat east of Newfoundland, put a boarding party on board, and escorted the submarine, the second to surrender, over a thousand miles to the East Coast of the United States.

Otter then began to refit for the Pacific War. The end of hostilities changed plans and Otter was assigned to the Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, to assist in submarine training.

By directive dated January 1947, Otter was placed out of commission, in reserve, attached to the United States Atlantic Reserve Fleet and berthed in Florida.

Awards[]

Otter received one battle star for service in World War II.

References[]

External links[]


All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at USS Otter (DE-210) and the edit history here.
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