Photographic History of the United States Navy
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NavSource Naval History Photographic History of the United States Navy |
DESTROYER ARCHIVE |
138 of her crew were lost with the ship and remain on duty.
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Size | Image Description | Contributed By |
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12k | Daniel Turner was probably born at Richmond on Staten Island in 1794 and was appointed a midshipman in the Navy on 1 January 1808. Following brief duty at the New York Naval Station, he served in Constitution on the North Atlantic Station. On 8 June 1812, he received orders to Norwich, Conn., where he took command of the gunboats located there. On 14 March 1813, two days after receiving his com-mission as a lieutenant, Turner was sent to Sackett's Harbor, N.Y., located on the shores of Lake Erie. There, he took command of Niagra, a brig in Oliver Hazard Perry's squadron. However, just before the Battle of Lake Erie, he relinquished command to Capt. Jesse D. Elliott and assumed command of Caledonia. The little brig played an important role in the Battle of Lake Erie on 10 September 1813 because, at one point in the action, her two 24-pounder long guns were the only ones in Perry's flotilla capable of returning the distant fire of the three heaviest British ships then in the process of pounding Perry's flagship Lawrence. For his part in the American victory at Lake Erie, Lt. Turner received the praise of Perry, a vote of thanks and a medal from Congress, and a sword from the state of New York. In the summer of 1814, Turner succeeded to the command of schooner Scorpion, and he cruised Lakes Erie and Huron in her supporting army operations around Detroit and blockading British forces at the Nottawa-saga River and Lake Simcoe. On 6 September 1814, Turner and his command were captured by the British when he brought Scorpion alongside the former American schooner Tigress which, unbeknownst to him, had been captured a few days earlier. After a period of imprisonment at Mackinac, Lt. Turner returned to the United States in exchange for a British prisoner of war. Between 1815 and 1817, Turner cruised the Mediterranean in the frigate Java commanded by his old superior on the Great Lakes, Oliver Hazard Perry. During that deployment, Java visited Algiers and Tripoli in a show of American naval strength calculated to impress the Barbary pirates and intimidate them into honoring their treaties with the United States. In 1817, Java returned to Newport, R.I., to be laid up. Between 1819 and 1824, Turner returned to sea in the schooner Nonsuch attached to a squadron commanded again by Oliver Hazard Perry. In addition to hunting West Indian pirates, his ship sailed up the Orinoco River to carry Perry on a diplomatic mission to the Venezuelan government under Simon Bolivar. During the return downriver, Perry and many of the crew contracted yellow fever. Turner was close at hand when his mentor died at Trinidad on 23 August 1819. During the remaining years of Turner's assignment to Nonsuch, his ship worked along the east coast of the United States, patrolled in the West Indies to suppress piracy, and made a brief cruise to the Mediterranean in 1824. Following shore duty at Boston, Turner returned to sea in 1827 for a three-year assignment with the West India Squadron, as the commanding officer of Erie. In 1830, he came ashore again for three years at the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard. Promoted to captain on 3 March 1835, Turner spent a long period waiting orders before returning to sea in 1839 in command of Constitution. He sailed the Pacific Station in "Old Ironsides," until he was relieved in 1841. From 1843 to 1846, he commanded the American squadron which operated along the Brazilian coast. From that duty, he reported ashore again as Commandant, Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard. Capt. Turner died suddenly on 4 February 1850 at Philadelphia, and he was buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Md. | Bill Gonyo | |
| 82k | Artist's conception of the Turner as she appeared in World War II by the renowned graphic illustrator John Barrett with the text written by naval author and historian Robert F. Sumrall. Their company Navy Yard Associates offers prints of most destroyers, destroyer escorts, submarines and aircraft carriers in various configurations during the ship's lifetime. The prints can be customized with ship's patches, your photograph, your bio, etc. If you decide to purchase artwork from them please indicate that you heard about their work from NavSource. | Navy Yard Associates | |
| 25k | Undated, location unknown. | Benson-Livermore Class Destroyer Website | |
| 183k | Undated, Brooklyn Navy Yard. | Richard Miller BMCS USNR RET./Edward Sloan | |
| 201k | USS Turner (DD-648) photograph dated 18 January 1943, but actually taken several months later. This image was retouched by the wartime censor to remove radar antennas atop the ship's foremast and Mk. 37 gun director. However, the censor did not remove the SG radar antenna on the foremast. Turner sank on 3 January 1944, with the loss of 15 officers and 123 crewmen, after suffering a series of explosions while at anchor off Ambrose Light near New York harbor. | Ed Zajkowski/Robert Hurst | |
| 73k | Invitation to the Christening and Launching February 28 1943. | Kaj Swenson | |
| 56k | Ticket to the Christening and Launching February 28 1943. | Kaj Swenson | |
| 64k | Souvenir button of the launching of the USS Thorn (DD-647), USS Turner (DD-648), USS Bullard (DD-660) and USS Kidd (DD-661) on February 2 1943. Courtesy of www.timepassagesnostalgia.com. | Tom Kerman | |
| 78k | The Gleaves-class destroyer USS Turner (DD-648) headed for the Brooklyn Navy Yards for a scheduled refit and repair period in April 1943. | Bill Gonyo | |
| 154k | USS Turner (DD-648) photographed by a blimp from NAS Weeksville, on 6 September 1943. Note: "Mousetrap" A.S.W. rocket launchers on her forecastle, in front of number one 5"/38 gun. Source: United States National Archives, Photo No. 80-G-84344. | Fred Weiss/Mike Green | |
| 82k | CDR Frank A.Erickson, USCG, struggled to keep his Sikorsky HNS-1 helicopter in the air as high winds drove blinding snow squalls and sleet into him. Afierce storm swept the Atlantic coast and forced authorities to ground aircraftand close airfields, however, Erickson persevered because men’s livesdepended upon him. Devastating explosions ripped USS Turner (DD 648) apart as she lay anchored off Ambrose Light near Lower New York Bay, during the morning watch on 3 January 1944. The fires cooked-off ammunition and despite the crew’s gallant attempts to save their ship, she sank within hours. Rescuers brought survivors to the nearby hospital at Sandy Hook, and the wounded urgently needed blood plasma. Erickson took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York and fought gusting winds that tore through the corridors of downtown Manhattan. Reaching Battery Park, he picked up two cases of the precious fluid, and with the cargo lashed to the helicopter’s floats, he then delivered the plasma in the first helicopter lifesaving operation. The intrepid pilot afterward observed that the “weather conditions were such that this flight could not have been made in any other type of aircraft.” Born near Portland, Oregon, Erickson enlisted in the Navy and became a midshipman before he resigned and enlisted in the Coast Guard. He received an appointment to the Coast Guard Academy and commissioned as an ensign in 1931. After service on board cutters before World War II, he transferred to Honolulu and witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.Erickson subsequently became instrumental in the early development of helicopters and pioneered some of the techniques that the Navy and Coast Guard adapted, before he retired at the rank of Captain to Corpus Christi, Texas,in 1954. The Coast Guard Aviation Association honors CAPT Erickson’s memory by awarding an annual rescue trophy to the most outstanding Coast Guard helicopter rescue crew. Photo courtesy of the United States Coast Guard. | Bill Gonyo | |
| 28k | Overhead view of the USS Turner (DD-648) anchored off Ambrose Light on early January 3, 1944, shortly after she suffered an internal explosion.US Navy and Marine Corps Museum/Naval Aviation Museum, Photo No. 1993.501.073.084. | Mike Green | |
 USS Turner gravesites at Long Island National Cemetery and a brief history of her demise. | Ron Reeves | |||
CDR Henry Sollett Wygant Jr. Apr 15 1943 - Jan 3 1944
The contact listed, Was the contact at the time for this ship when located. If another person now is the contact, E-mail me and I will update this entry. These contacts are compiled from various sources over a long period of time and may or may not be correct. Every effort has been made to list the newest contact if more than one contact was found.
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