Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Farenholt

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ClassBenson class
TypeDestroyer (DD)
HullDD-491
FateAfloat. Heavily damaged at Cape Esperance by gunfire from both sides. Not sunk. Still afloat at the surrender.
Armament (class)Four 5-inch guns and two funnels. Some of the class landed a fifth gun.

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

The armament line is the class drawing, not a measurement of this hull.

Farenholt
U.S. Navy photo 80-G-12264. USS Farenholt (DD-491) underway in the South Pacific, 24 August 1942 (80-G-12264).jpg. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

USS Farenholt (DD-491) was a Benson-class destroyer of the United States Navy. The fight recorded for her is the Battle of Cape Esperance on 11 October 1942. That night she led Scott's column.

In the action she was out of station, ahead of San Francisco. Gunfire from both sides hit her there, and the damage was put down as gun damage.

Those hits left Farenholt heavily damaged. She remained afloat through the night and was not lost at Cape Esperance. She survived the war. At the surrender the hull was still afloat.

The pictures on this page are the originals.