Pacific ships

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Little

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TypeTransport (AP)
HullAPD-4
BuilderFore River, Quincy
Launched1917-11-11
Commissioned1918-04-06
FateSunk. Wickes-class destroyer, DD-79, converted to the high-speed transport APD-4. This is not the later Little, DD-803. Sunk off Guadalcanal on 5 September 1942 by Yudachi, Hatsuyuki, and Murakumo, with Gregory. Not credited to one ship.
Command

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

Little
USS Little (APD-4) in port, early 1942, in Measure 12 (Modified). This is the high-speed transport, not the later destroyer. U.S. Navy photograph. Public domain.

USS Little (APD-4) was a Wickes-class ship of the United States Navy. Fore River at Quincy built her, and she was launched on 11 November 1917.

The Navy commissioned her on 6 April 1918 as the destroyer DD-79. She was later converted to a high-speed transport and redesignated APD-4. A later ship of the same name was DD-803.

On 7 August 1942, in the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, Little served as a high-speed transport. She put Marines ashore at Tulagi. Gus Brynolf Lofberg, Jr., was in command that day.

On 5 September 1942, off Guadalcanal, Little was sunk with Gregory in the water between Guadalcanal and Savo. Yudachi, Hatsuyuki, and Murakumo sank the two ships.

The sinking is ascribed to those three ships together, and it is not credited to one ship. Little was lost that day.

The pictures on this page are the originals.