USS Warrington, DD 383, Sept. 1944
NOTE: This is from Richard J. Reynolds and other sources: I do not take credit for authorship.
10 Sept. 1944: USS WARRINGTON departs Norfolk VA for Trinidad in company of USS HYADES – Sank in a hurricane 218 nm NE of Hole in the Wall, in 4,500 m, ESE of Abaco on 13 Sept. 1944. 73 men were rescued by numerous US Navy ships and likely taken to the US. See book “Dragon’s Breath” Naval Institute Press Cdr. Dawes, with help by Richard J. Reynolds – emails to/from author and RJ Reynolds July 6, 2010, re: WARRINGTON survivors group Richard J. Reynolds at rjreynol@usgs.gov
On 10 September, she departed Norfolk in company with Hyades (AF-28) and set her course for Trinidad.Two days out of Norfolk, along the Florida coast, the two ships encountered heavy weather. In the afternoon, Warrington received word that she was steaming directly into a hurricane.
Later that evening, the storm forced the destroyer to heave to while Hyades continued on her way alone. Keeping wind and sea on her port bow, Warrington rode relatively well through most of the night. Wind and seas, however, continued to build during the early morning hours of the 13th. Warrington began to lose headway and, as a result, started to ship water through the vents to her engineering spaces. The water rushing into her vents caused a loss of electrical power which set off a chain reaction. Her main engines lost power, and her steering engine and mechanism went out. She wallowed there in the trough of the swells continuing to ship water. She regained headway briefly and turned upwind, while her radiomen desperately, but fruitlessly, tried to raise Hyades.
Finally, she resorted to a plain-language distress call to any ship or shore station. By noon on the 13th, it was apparent that Warrington’s crewmen could not win the struggle to save their ship, and the order went out to prepare to abandon ship. By 1250 her crew had left Warrington; and she went down almost immediately. A prolonged search by Hyades, Frost (DE-144), Nuse (DE-145), Inch (DE-146), Snowden (DE-246), Swasey (DE248), Woodson (DE-359), Johnnie Hutchins (DE-360), ATR-9, and ATR-62 rescued only 5 officers and 68 men of the destroyer’s 20 officers and 301 men. Warrington’s name was struck from the Navy list on 23 September 1944.
USS Warrington (Cmdr Samuel Frank Quarles) was caught in a violent storm in the Atlantic going to Trinidad. 130 knot winds brought the ship to a standstill while waves pounded her hull to pieces. Sea water flooded the engine room, cutting off all power and damaging the steering mechanism. She took a list to starboard and rolled over, sinking stern first about 175 nautical miles east-south-east of Great Abaco Island, Bahamas Islands in position 27º00’N, 73º00’W.
Only 73 survivors were found, which includes the Commanding officer though 248 men were lost. Warrington earned two battle stars during World War II. WARRINGTON, US Destroyer, 15 Sept. 1944 Destroyer Warrington (DD 383), escorting provision stores ship HYADES (AF 28), capsizes 175 miles east-southeast of Great Abaco Island, Bahamas, 27°55’N, 73°42’ W (27.00N, 73.00W) in a Hurricane which envelopes US (and U-boat) forces off Eastern seaboard).