U.S.S. TUCKER

DD-374 USS Tucker

USS Tucker was built at Norfolk, Virginia, and commissioned in July 1936. She worked in the Western Atlantic for her first year before being sent to join the Battle Fleet in the Pacific. Through the end of the 30s, Tucker mainly worked off the West Coast and in Hawaiian Islands, making a trip to the Caribbean once in 1939 for a Fleet Problem operation. In 1941, she was sent to New Zealand to demonstrate the U.S. presence in the area due to increasing tensions with Japan. USS Tucker was at Pearl Harbor when the attack brought the U.S. into the war in December 1941.

Tucker engaged in patrol and escort duties for the better part of 1942, before being sent to the South Pacific. She operated between Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia in the mid-part of that year and was then sent on an escort mission in August. She entered an area near Espiritu Santo that was a defensive minefield. She ended up striking a mine amidships, and was basically useless. USS Tucker was attempted to be towed to shore several times, but eventually sank right there. The accident is blamed on communications failure, and six lives were claimed in the wreck.