Samuel B. Roberts was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort, DE-413, a small ship built to guard convoys. Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland had her. The portrait is the Navy photograph taken off Boston in June 1944, hull 413 on the bow.
On the morning of 25 October 1944 she was one of four destroyer escorts with Taffy 3. The destroyers went in at Kurita's force. She went in with them, against battleships and heavy cruisers. She fired torpedoes and guns. No ship is credited to her as a kill.
Japanese gunfire sank her. The ships that hit her are not pinned down. She was lost that morning with Hoel, Johnston, and Gambier Bay.