USS Mustin (DD-413) was a Sims-class destroyer of the United States Navy,
the first Navy ship of that name, in honor of Captain Henry C. Mustin (1874-1923),
a pioneer of naval aviation. Mustin was laid down on 20 December 1937 by
Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia; launched on
8 December 1938; sponsored by Mrs. Lloyd M. Mustin, daughter-in-law of Captain
Mustin; and commissioned on 15 September 1939, Lieutenant Commander
James S. Freeman in command.

Mustin joined the Atlantic Fleet for the tense period of neutrality patrol
preceding American entry in World War II, playing her part in guarding the
western Atlantic. On 7 December 1941, she lay in overhaul at Boston Navy Yard,
Massachusetts, but put to sea next day escorting Idaho and Mississippi off to war.
She herself completed overhaul
in Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina on 3 January 1942, transited the Panama
Canal on 20 January, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 17 February for duty escorting
convoys between Hawaii and San Francisco until 3 April.

South Pacific, May 1942 – April 1943

A convoy mission to Samoa was completed at Pearl Harbor on 24 May. Mustin next
escorted a merchantman with reinforcements to Midway Island, threatened by the
Japanese attack which exploded while Mustin was returning to Pearl Harbor, where
she arrived on 5 June. Two days later, the destroyer sailed with Task Force 17 (TF 17),
searching for scattered Japanese survivors of the great battle of Midway. After a
negative search, the force returned to Hawaiian waters on 13 June, and Mustin began
2 months of training and patrols out of Pearl Harbor.

Mustin sailed on 17 August with TF 17, the Hornet group, bound for an important
role in the great sea warfare which wrested the Southwest Pacific from the Japanese. Her
group covered the southern approaches to Guadalcanal during the initial phase of fighting
there, then struck Buin, Faisi, and Tonolai from the air. In the Battle of the Santa Cruz
Islands on 26 October, Mustin rescued 337 of Hornet's survivors, and had the
grim duty of destroying the heavily damaged carrier with a full salvo of torpedoes. She
avenged the carrier in part by shooting down five enemy aircraft during the battle.

Patrol and convoy duty from Nouméa and Espiritu Santo alternated with task force duty, and
on 11 November, she joined TF 16 for the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. On 25 December,
Mustin fired shore bombardment at enemy positions on Guadalcanal, to which she
had just escorted transports. In February 1943, she again guarded carrier operations off
Guadalcanal, then returned to patrol and escort duties until 14 April, when she returned to
Pearl Harbor.
Fate: Scuttled off Kwajalein, 18 April 1948

Home

CL-50

Pictures