View source for USS Perkins (DD-877)

{{Short description|Gearing-class destroyer}}
{{other ships|USS Perkins}}
{{Use American English|date=October 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image= [[File:USS Perkins (DD-877) underway following her FRAM II modernization, circa the mid-1960s (NH 99522).jpg|300px|USS Perkins (DD-877), underway following her FRAM II modernization, c. the mid-1960s.]] 
|Ship caption=''Perkins'' underway following her FRAM II modernization, c. mid-1960s.
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag= {{USN flag|1973}}
|Ship name=USS ''Perkins''
|Ship namesake=[[George H. Perkins]]
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=[[Consolidated Steel Corporation]], [[Orange, Texas]] 
|Ship laid down=19 June 1944
|Ship launched=7 December 1944
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=4 April 1945
|Ship decommissioned=15 January 1973
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=15 January 1973
|Ship renamed=
|Ship reclassified=*DDR–877, 18 February 1949
*DD-877, 30 September 1962
|Ship homeport=
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honors=
|Ship fate=Transferred to [[Argentina]], 15 January 1973
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=title
|Ship country=Argentina
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Argentina|naval}}
|Ship name=ARA ''Comodoro Py'' 
|Ship namesake=
|Ship acquired= 15 January 1973
|Ship commissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=1984
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship homeport=
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honors=
|Ship identification=D 27
|Ship fate= Sunk as a target, 15 June 1987
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship class overview
|Class before={{sclass|Seguí|destroyer|4}}
|Class after={{sclass|Hércules|destroyer|4}}
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class= {{sclass|Gearing|destroyer}}
|Ship displacement= {{convert|3460|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} full
|Ship length= {{convert|390|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{convert|40|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draft= {{convert|14|ft|4|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth=
|Ship hold depth=
|Ship propulsion=Geared turbines, 2 shafts, {{convert|60000|shp|MW|0|abbr=on}}
|Ship speed= {{convert|35|kn|lk=in}}
|Ship range= {{convert|4500|nmi|km|abbr=on}} at {{convert|20|kn|abbr=on}}
|Ship complement=336
|Ship armament=*6 × [[5"/38 caliber gun]]s
*12 × [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|40 mm AA guns]]
*11 × [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|20 mm AA guns]]
*10 × [[American 21 inch torpedo|21 inch (533 mm)]] [[torpedo tube]]s
*6 × [[depth charge]] projectors
*2 × depth charge tracks
|Ship armor=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}
'''USS ''Perkins'' (DD/DDR-877)''' was a {{sclass|Gearing|destroyer}} in the [[United States Navy]]. She was the third Navy ship named for Commodore [[George H. Perkins]] USN (1835&ndash;1899).

''Perkins'' was laid down by the [[Consolidated Steel Corporation]] at [[Orange, Texas]] on 19 June 1944, [[Ship naming and launching|launched]] on 7 December 1944 by Mrs. Larz Anderson ([[Isabel Weld Perkins]]) and [[Ship commissioning|commissioned]] on 4 April 1945.

==Service history==

===1945&ndash;1949===
Following shakedown off [[Cuba]], ''Perkins'' entered the [[Norfolk Navy Yard]] for conversion to a [[radar picket]] destroyer. In July 1945 she underwent refresher training, rendezvoused with the [[aircraft carrier]] {{USS|Boxer|CV-21|2}} on 20 July, and headed for the [[Pacific]]. At [[Pearl Harbor]] she joined Destroyer Division 52 (DesDiv&nbsp;52) and on 19 August sailed for the [[Far East]]. She entered [[Tokyo Bay]] the day of the formal [[Surrender of Japan|Japanese surrender]], on 2 September, and on the 3rd joined [[Fast Carrier Task Force|Task Force 38]] (TF&nbsp;38). Operations in the [[Marshall Islands|Marshalls]], [[Mariana Islands|Marianas]], and off Japan followed and in April 1946 she returned to Pearl Harbor. On the 28th she arrived at [[Naval Station San Diego|San Diego, California]] whence she operated for the next year.

In May 1947, she returned to the Far East for three months on the China station, two weeks of which were spent off [[Qinhuangdao]], on the [[Bohai Sea]], observing [[Communist Party of China|Communist Chinese]] forces.

''Perkins'' returned to California in October and in January 1948 sailed to the Marshalls for the [[atomic bomb]] test series "[[Operation Sandstone]]". Overhaul followed her return to San Diego in June and on 4 January 1949 she departed the west coast for another tour off the China coast. Arriving at [[Qingdao]] on 7 February, she was redesignated '''DDR–877''' on 18 February. Scheduled exercises soon began, but, in addition, she was called on to lift foreign residents of Tsingtao to [[Hong Kong]] as Communist forces took over the former city in May. In June she battled her first [[typhoon]], and after visiting [[Singapore]] in August, she returned to San Diego.

===1950&ndash;1959===
Engaged in training exercises off the west coast and yard overhaul for the next year, ''Perkins'', reassigned to DesDiv&nbsp;11, sailed west again in mid-August 1950. She served on [[Search and rescue|SAR]] station in the central Pacific, returned to the west coast in October, and on 2 February 1951 got underway for the embattled coast of [[Korea]]. Between March and September she performed screening and [[plane guard]] duties for the carriers of TF&nbsp;77 and carried out gunfire support and shore bombardment missions with TF&nbsp;95. On 25 September ''Perkins'' arrived at [[United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka|Yokosuka, Japan]] from the bombline and the next day continued on toward the United States. In June 1952 she returned to Korea. She spent July entirely on the bombline, shifted briefly to TF&nbsp;77, then steamed south for duty on the [[Taiwan Patrol]]. By 8 September she was back on the bombline. On 15 October, while covering [[minesweeping]] operations preparatory to an amphibious feint against [[Kojo, North Korea|Kojo]], {{convert|35|mi|km}} north of the battlefront, one of her crew was killed and 17 were wounded by two near misses from Communist shore batteries. Only slightly damaged, she continued her combat activities and for the remainder of her tour alternated gunfire support operations with carrier escort duties.

At the end of the year ''Perkins'' returned to the United States. In July 1953 she completed a six-month overhaul and in August she returned to the Far East. There six months she patrolled off the Korean coast and [[Taiwan Strait]] and participated in exercises from Japan to the Philippines. After that deployment ''Perkins'' continued to rotate between duty with the [[United States Seventh Fleet|7th Fleet]] in the [[Pacific Ocean|western Pacific]] and operations with the [[United States First Fleet|1st Fleet]] off the west coast. In July 1956 she contributed to the information gathering effort of the [[International Geophysical Year]] (IGY) by "chasing" [[weather balloon]]s and in September 1959 helped TF&nbsp;77 forestall overt hostilities during the [[Laotian crisis]].

=== 1960&ndash;1973===
In March 1962 she entered the [[Long Beach Naval Shipyard]] for [[Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization]] (FRAM). Redesignated '''DD-877''', on 30 September, she emerged from the Mark&nbsp;II overhaul and conversion in December with a new superstructure configured for [[QH-50 DASH]]. The "new" destroyer spent the next ten months exercising off the west coast and in mid-October 1963 resumed annual deployments to WestPac, her first mission to conduct operations with the carrier {{USS|Hancock|CV-19|2}} in the [[South China Sea]]. Continuing to alternate 7th Fleet and 1st Fleet duty tours into 1970, each of ''Perkins''{{'}}s WestPac deployments returned her to the South China Sea where, off the coast of [[Vietnam]], she served as plane guard for carriers on "[[Yankee Station]]" in the [[Tonkin Gulf]], participated in "[[Operation Sea Dragon (Vietnam War)|Sea Dragon]]" and "[[Operation Market Time|Market Time]]" operations, patrolled on search and rescue duties and carried out [[naval gunfire support]] missions during the conflict.

=== Argentine service===

{{other ships|ARA Py}}

''Perkins'' was decommissioned and stricken from the [[Naval Vessel Register]] on 15 January 1973, transferred to [[Argentina]]. She was renamed '''ARA ''Comodoro Py'' (D-27)''', and served in the [[Argentine Navy]]. She was stricken in 1984.

On 15 June 1987, ''Comodoro Py'' was sunk as a [[target ship|target]] off [[Mar del Plata]] by a [[torpedo]] fired from the Argentine Navy {{sclass2|TR-1700|submarine}} {{ship|ARA|Santa Cruz|S-41|6}}.

== Awards ==
''Perkins'' earned three [[battle star]]s during the [[Korean War]].

== References ==
{{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/p/perkins-iii.html|http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd877txt.htm}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|USS Perkins (DD-877)}}
* {{navsource|05/877|USS Perkins}}

{{Gearing class destroyer|others}}
{{1987 shipwrecks}}
{{coord|39.250|S|57.000|W|display=title|source:eswiki}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perkins (DD-877)}}
[[Category:Gearing-class destroyers of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built in Orange, Texas]]
[[Category:1944 ships]]
[[Category:World War II destroyers of the United States]]
[[Category:Cold War destroyers of the United States]]
[[Category:Korean War destroyers of the United States]]
[[Category:Vietnam War destroyers of the United States]]
[[Category:Comodoro Py-class destroyers]]
[[Category:Ships transferred from the United States Navy to the Argentine Navy|Comodoro Py]]
[[Category:Ships sunk as targets]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1987]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the Argentine coast]]