USS Tucker, a 1500-ton Mahan class destroyer, was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia. Commissioned in July 1936, she spent the next year working up in the western Atlantic before going to the Pacific to join the Battle Fleet. During the rest of the decade Tucker mainly operated off the West Coast and in Hawaiian waters, with a trip into the Caribbean in early 1939 to participate in Fleet Problem XX. In 1941 she visited New Zealand as part of the Navy's efforts to demonstrate its presence in the region at a time of rising tensions with Japan.
Tucker was moored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when Japan's surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet abruptly brought the United States into World War II on 7 December 1941. For the next several months she was engaged in patrol and escort duties between Hawaii and the West Coast. Sent to the south Pacific in the spring of 1942, Tucker operated between Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. On 3 August 1942, while escorting a freighter, she entered a defensive minefield near Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides and struck a mine amidships. With her back broken, Tucker gradually sank despite attempts to tow her ashore. This tragic accident, the result of a communications failure, cost the lives of six of her crew and deprived the Allies of a badly needed destroyer on the eve of the long and costly Guadalcanal campaign.
This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Tucker (DD-374).
For more images related to USS Tucker, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
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Photo #: NH 59935 USS Tucker (DD-374) Completion photograph, taken off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 2 March 1937. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 60331 USS Tucker (DD-374) Completion photograph, taken off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 2 March 1937. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 585 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 59936 USS Tucker (DD-374) Completion photograph, taken off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 2 March 1937. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 106KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 99206 USS Tucker (DD-374) Underway in Massachusetts Bay, 17 November 1937. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 99207 USS Tucker (DD-374) Underway in Massachusetts Bay, 17 November 1937. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 99205 USS Tucker (DD-374) Underway on 28 April 1938. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 120KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 101683 USS Tucker (DD-374) Steaming past a Naval Air Station (probably NAS North Island, San Diego, California) on 22 October 1938. The airplane parked in the foreground is a PBY-3 (Bureau # 0857). U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 545 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 101665 USS Tucker (DD-374) At anchor, during the later 1930s. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 565 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 63135 USS Tucker (DD-374) With canvas hung from her masts, during the later 1930s. This is probably an experiment in using makeshift sails to extend the ship's low speed cruising range. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 93KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 68074 USS Tucker (DD-374) In a harbor, circa the later 1930s. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 465 pixels |
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Photo #: 19-N-28632 USS Tucker (DD-374) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 11 March 1942. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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For more images related to USS Tucker, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 23 March 2004