Account Closed

How many U.S. warships had World War II cost? Last week the Navv told. Beginning with the destroyer Reuben James, sunk on Atlantic patrol by a U-boat five weeks before Pearl Harbor, and ending with the submarine Bullhead, which disappeared in the Java Sea just as Japan quit, the total was 701. The list included 157 first-line combat ships, plus 544 supporting ships and auxiliaries ranging from troopships to 15-ton yard craft.

The first-line ships list--battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, destroyer escorts and submarines--represented 496,994 tons, or 46% of the Navy's combat force at the time of Pearl Harbor. The great majority (144) of the supporting vessels lost were bow-ramp landing ships and craft which did not exist, except in blueprint, when the first bombs fell.

The list contained no major surprises: all but the small vessels had been identified before hostilities ended. One minor surprise: the minesweeper Crow was sunk in Puget Sound in 1943 by "air attack" --a nonexplosive torpedo dropped by a U.S. training bomber sent the 97-ton craft to the bottom.

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