Wreck of USS Duncan (DD-485)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, destroyer (ship), United States Navy

USS Duncan was a Gleaves Class Destroyer in service with the US Navy during the Second World War, and after her April 1942 commissioning she was ordered to the South Pacific where the US was preparing to assault the Island of Guadalcanal. Arriving at the rear US base of Espiritu Santo in September 1942, the Duncan began escorting troop and supply convoys to Guadalcanal and Tulagi to support US forces ashore on both islands.

After completing a convoy escort run to Guadalcanal on October 11th, 1942 the Duncan was ordered to join up with Task Force 64; a group of four Cruisers and five Destroyers under the command of US Rear Admiral Norman Scott, after a American recon plane made visual contact with a Japanese force heading down the body of water known as 'the Slot' towards Guadalcanal. Acting quickly, Scott ordered the ships of Task Force 64 into a looping patrol line Northwest of Guadalcanal and Savo Island to wait for the Japanese force, expected to arrive around midnight. Arriving with the usual timely precision that had earned their resupply efforts the nickname “Tokyo Express”, the Japanese force was finally spotted and plotted by a floatplane at 2300hrs and began to appear on the radar screens of the Duncan and several of the US Cruisers at 2332hrs off of Cape Esperance. Heavy rain squalls and a lack of onboard radar left the Japanese attack force consisting of three Cruisers and eight Destroyers totally unaware of the presence of the US ships, and as they parted company with the transport group and shaped a course for Ironbottom Sound to shell the American airfield the radar-equipped American battle line began its turn into formation to 'Cross the T' of the approaching Japanese formation.

Owing largely to a delay in the execution of the group turn, the three leading Destroyers of the American van, including Duncan, were thrown out of formation towards the approaching Japanese fleet. As the three ships finished their late turn, the USS Farenholt and USS Laffey immediately realized their error and increased their speed to regain their stations at the lead of the American column. Aboard the USS Duncan, Captain E. B. Taylor took this sudden increase of speed by the other Destroyers as a signal that they were beginning their attack. Being the only radar-equipped ship in the lead Destroyer formation, the Duncan’s crew well aware of the position of the enemy force, and thinking that he was now responsible for leading the formation to its target, Taylor ordered USS Duncan to flank speed and closed in on the largest target his radar had: the Japanese Heavy Cruiser Furutaka.

Bending on almost 37 knots, the Duncan raced towards the enormous Japanese Cruiser, hove to within half a mile and fired a pair of torpedoes at her target. As she came broadside to the Japanese force, Duncan’s Captain realized his ship rather than leading a multi-ship attack formation was in fact operating alone and had just alerted a massively superior Japanese force to his presence. Rather than attempting to withdraw, Capt. Taylor ordered his gunners to open fire as soon as their torpedoes detonated on their target. Unfortunately, neither torpedo hit the Furutaka or they failed to detonate on impact, so as the rest of the US force opened fire on the Japanese at 2346hrs the Duncan followed suit, firing salvo after salvo of 5-inch rounds into the Japanese Cruiser at point blank range. Shortly after the firing began Duncan was stuck several times by friendly fire from the rest of the US force, which had assumed the Duncan to be a Japanese Destroyer. Forced to disengage from her attack to flash her recognition signal towards the US ships, the Duncan exposed herself to fire from the Japanese formation, starting fires which in addition to her blinking signal light gave the Japanese gunners a perfect target in the dark night. Suddenly raked with shell fire from the entire Japanese force, the rain of 8 & 5 inch shells slamming into the Duncan’s exposed broadside caused massive damage to her topside superstructure and opened up large holes in her hull that began flooding machinery spaces. Despite the damage she was taking, Duncan’s gunners continued to fire on whatever Japanese ships they could manually target as her Captain disengaged his vessel and steered a course for Savo Island, hoping to beach his battered vessel. Attempting to withdraw to the Southeast as the Battle of Cape Esperance raged behind her, the brightly burning Duncan was struck with at least two more salvos from Japanese Cruisers, gradually lost engine power and slowed to a halt. No longer able to operate her guns and now dead in the water and flooding, Captain Taylor ordered the Duncan abandoned at around 0100hrs on October 12th, 1942.

After the Japanese force withdrew from the area at approximately 0200hrs the USS McCalla was dispatched by Admiral Scott to locate the Duncan, which had not been seen by the US forces since the last formation turn at 2322hrs. At 0300hrs the McCalla came upon the abandoned, burning and drifting Duncan and after rescuing 195 survivors from the waters around the derelict ship attempted to take the Duncan under tow to more protected waters. All efforts to save the six month old ship proved futile though; the USS Duncan rolled over and sank in this general area at approximately 0345hrs on October 12th, 1942, taking 50 members of her crew with her to the bottom.

www.destroyerhistory.org/benson-gleavesclass/ussduncan/...
www.navsource.org/archives/05/485.htm