Figure 1: USS Sampson (DD-394) photographed circa the later 1930s. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Sampson (DD-394) tied up alongside a sister ship, circa the later 1930s. Courtesy of the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Ted Stone Collection. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Sampson (DD-394) steaming near USS Saratoga (CV-3), circa 1940. Note the safety net at the side of Saratoga's flight deck, and the TBD-1 torpedo planes parked nearby. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Sampson (DD-394) underway at sea, circa 1939-1940. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Sampson (DD-394) underway in the Gulf of Panama, 14 March 1943. Though the pattern is not visible in this photograph, Sampson is painted in the very pale pattern of Measure 16 (Thayer system) camouflage. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Sampson (DD-394) underway in the Gulf of Panama, 14 March 1943. Halftone reproduction, published by the Division of Naval Intelligence in June 1943 for ship recognition purposes. Sampson is painted in the very pale pattern of Measure 16 (Thayer system) camouflage, which is faintly visible in this view. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Sampson (DD-394) underway in the Gulf of Panama, 14 March 1943. Halftone reproduction, published by the Division of Naval Intelligence in June 1943 for ship recognition purposes. Sampson is painted in the very pale pattern of Measure 16 (Thayer system) camouflage. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Sampson (DD-394) off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 27 September 1944. She is wearing Camouflage Design 3D, presumably in Measure 32. However, the darkest tone looks rather light to be the dull black of Measure 32 and might be Measure 33's navy blue. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: US Navy ships at Bora Bora, Society Islands. A destroyer and a light cruiser in Teavanui Harbor, February 1942. The cruiser (with four smokestacks) is probably USS Trenton (CL-11), and the destroyer is probably USS Sampson (DD-394). Note their camouflage: Measure 12 on the cruiser and the mottled pattern of Measure 12 (Modified) on the destroyer. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after Rear Admiral William T. Sampson (1840-1902), who was the victor of the Battle of Santiago de Cuba on 3 July 1898, the 2,130-ton USS Sampson (DD-394) was a Somers class destroyer that was built by the Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine, and was commissioned on 19 August 1938. The ship was approximately 381 feet long and 36 feet wide, had a top speed of 32 knots, and had a crew of 287 officers and men. Sampson was armed with eight 5-inch guns, a variety of anti-aircraft guns, 12 21-inch torpedo tubes, and depth charges.
After completing her shakedown cruise in Europe, Sampson patrolled off the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean until April 1939, when she was sent to the Pacific. Sampson spent the next two years participating in naval maneuvers off the Hawaiian Islands and off America’s west coast. The ship returned to the Atlantic at the end of 1940 and on 3 September 1941, Sampson left Boston, Massachusetts, to participate in Neutrality Patrols, escorting merchant ships between Newfoundland and Iceland. The destroyer reached Iceland on 16 September and then left on October 23 to escort a convoy that was headed back to Boston. Sampson and her brood of merchant ships reached Boston on 4 November 1941.
After America entered the war on 7 December 1941, Sampson went on anti-submarine patrols off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, along with the destroyer USS Warrington (DD-383). She continued this assignment until 12 January 1942, when the two ships were sent to the Panama Canal. Sampson arrived at Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, on 17 January and was ordered to join the Southeast Pacific Forces that were based there. Throughout the next year, Sampson was assigned to patrol and escort duties along the western seaboard of Latin America and westward as far as the Society and Galapagos Islands. Beginning in May 1943, Sampson‘s convoy escort duties were extended to the southwest Pacific and she remained in that area until the beginning of August. Sampson was based at both Noumea, New Caledonia, and at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands. From both of these bases, Sampson escorted merchant ships and troop ships to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. On the night of 2-3 October 1943, while escorting a convoy from Nounea to Espiritu Santo, Sampson fired on a Japanese submarine. The submarine quickly submerged, but Sampson dropped depth charges over it, resulting in a heavy oil slick coming from where the submarine was thought to be.
On 15 March 1944, Sampson and four other destroyers left Espiritu Santo and escorted the carriers USS Natoma Bay (CVE-62) and USS Manila Bay (CVE-61). They were then joined by four battleships and several more destroyers, all coming together as one large task force. On 20 March, the ships attacked Kavieng in New Ireland in a major air-sea assault. While the ships bombarded the island, aircraft from the carriers pounded shore targets as well. At the same time, the Fourth Marine Regiment made an unopposed landing on Emirau Island, off the northern coast of New Ireland. Taking Emirau Island enabled the Marines to keep New Ireland under surveillance without having to actually occupy it. After escorting the carriers and providing anti-aircraft support for the troop transports that were bringing reinforcements to Emirau Island, Sampson escorted a convoy back to Espiritu Santo. Then in April 1944, Sampson joined the Seventh Fleet and participated in amphibious operations along the northern shore of New Guinea.
During the invasion of Biak Island in the Schouten Island chain, Sampson and the amphibious group she was escorting were attacked by four Japanese twin-engine bombers. Anti-aircraft fire from Sampson and the other escorts shot down two of the bombers and damaged another, which flew away with one of its engines on fire. The fourth enemy plane, which also was on fire, tried to crash into Sampson. But as the burning plane rapidly approached the destroyer, Sampson’s anti-aircraft gunners managed to knock off one of the bomber’s wings. The flaming aircraft passed directly over Sampson’s bridge and hit the water. What was left of the plane bounced off the surface of the water and slammed into a nearby American patrol boat, SC-699. The small ship was immediately engulfed in flames, but the stout little vessel managed to put out the fires and stay afloat.
Sampson returned to the Atlantic in June of 1944. She was used as a convoy escort and over the next eleven months made five round-trip voyages between the east coast of the United States and ports located in the Mediterranean. Sampson then was used as a training ship during the late summer of 1945 and was decommissioned on 1 November 1945 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. USS Sampson was sold for scrapping on 29 March 1946.
