This month marks, 17
years
and since her decommissioning
and 7 years since she settled
to the bottom of the Pacific.
THE USS BENJAMIN STODDERT DDG-22 IS THE 21st SHIP IN THE ADAMS FAMILY AND IS THE SECOND SHIP TO BEAR THE NAME SAKE. 1ST WAS DD 302
A Stoddert ship statistics page received from scan on welcome aboard book. If you have trouble reading pick on picture for a larger view.
Saddened by the sinking of the Benjamin stoddert I have found some good in it. She will be around longer than the other ships of the Adams class. Even though it sitting on the bottom. In years to come we may receive pictures of her on the bottom. If she had completed the voyage to Texas she would probably be looking like this.
This is how it was originally reported
News week
April 30, 2001
Periscope
Who sank my battleship
The Navy has had plenty of disasters
lately.
But for sheer seafaring drama,
nothing quite matches the loss of the USS
Benjamin Stoddert, a
guided missile destroyer that recently
sank
in the Pacific Ocean en route to
a scrap yard in Brownsville, Texas.
Navy officials made no announcement of
the
Stoddert's Feb. 3 demise and
declined to discuss details. But seamen
involved in the incident told
NEWS WEEK that in mid January a tugboat
left
Pearl Harbor towing two
mothballed Navy ships, the Stoddert and
the USS Cochrane. When they ran into
20 foot waves and 40 knot winds, the
Stoddert
started taking on water.
Worried that the 3,300-ton destroyer might
capsize and become a hazard to
any seafaring vessels, two tug crewmen
jumped
aboard to see if it could be
saved. Finding themselves knee-deep in
water,
the crew opened the hatches
and made it back to the tug in time to see
the abandoned ship go down "like
the Titanic," says one crewman.
Now the scrap yard has filed suit,
accusing
the tugboat crew of "scuttling"
the ship. The tug firm denies the charges.
And former sailors who served on
the Stoddert say they're frustrated the
Navy hasn't been more forthcoming,
noting the destroyer had a storied past:
It was the last U.S. warship to
leave Vietnam. "To me, this is like a
friend
dying," says former sailor
Patrick Surrena.
Four Stacker dd-302 first ship named Benjamin. Stoddert
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