. . . A D V E R T I S E M E N T . . .

The WARRINGTON DD-843 Ship's Store now has T-shirts,
mugs, baseball jerseys, magnets, and other items. All have the
ship's patch printed on them. Click on the following:
http://www.cafeshops.com/warrington843

New, larger graphics!

. . . A D V E R T I S E M E N T . . .

My personal memories and pictures of the Warrington: Bruce Helmboldt's Warrington experiences.

Click on the little thumbnail picture to see an
electronically enhanced version of the picture above.

The Warrington was stricken from the Navy active list on July 17th, 1972. The remark shown is "mined", the only such ship in the Gearing class so noted. Do you have any more history on the Warrington? Please email any information to me at the email address below.

In response to the plea above, I received one (edited slightly) note on September 23rd, 1997:
I remember when the Warrington hit a mine in the Tonkin Gulf. I was aboard the USS Robison DDG-12. We were the ones to tow the Warrington out of the Tonkin Gulf and out to sea. A ocean going tug came out to get her and we escorted them to Subic Bay. ............. later ............. I believe there were 3 or 4 deaths aboard the Warrington when she hit the mine. When I find my cruise book from that cruise I may have more info for you.
John Mihalik

Thanks, John! And this note, also in late September, 1997:
I was on USS Warrington DD843. She is officially reported to have hit a "friendly mine" in NAM. People topside were said to have heard the "mine" whistling in from above..........She was a good ship, with a good crew. There was a great deal of hush hush about her loss.

Hmmmmmm. Thank you, too!

This great info (also edited) was received 12 OCT 97:
Served aboard, hit on 7/17/72 @ 1357 hrs. Two main explosions midships and after steering. No deaths occurred that day. Major flooding to all engineering spaces, loss of propulsion systems in 25 mins. Loss of over 150,000 gallons of fuel oil, 10,000 gallons JP5, after fuel oil tanks were sieves, flooded shaft alley on portside. Spent many hours plugging leaks. Member of Repair 5, Lead Investigator, combat station in forward boilerroom. ..................... Served on board from 4/71 until decommissioning 9/30/72 in Subic Bay, PI.
Joseph Michael Markowski (BT2)
formerly Exeter, PA / now Derry, NH

Wow! Thanks JM! A sad end to a real greyhound of the sea.

Here's a great letter I received in late November, 1997, from Pete Regnier (pregnier@efmark.com), who was the Communications Officer when DD-843 was hit.

And here's the "Official History" according to ex-RM2 Bob Poirier, received on 21 DEC 97 - Official History.

Here's more GREAT information received on 25 JAN 98: (posted unedited)
Chanced upon your WARRINGTON page and the inputs you have received -- so thought I would add my own comments. I was CTF 75 Ops Officer at the time of the mining incident (WARRINGTON and all other cruisers and destroyer types in Southeast Asia were operating under direction of CTF 75). EVERY DAY (!) a message was sent to all ships in the area defining the hazardous areas which were to be avoided at all times. One of the reasons for being a hazardous area was defined dumping areas for carrier aircraft to unload unused ordnance into prior to returning to their carriers. Mostly, unexpended Mk 36 destructor mines were dumped into these areas. To our dismay, WARRINGTON steamed into one of these areas, activated one of the Mk 36's, and the results are history. We were informed that the ship had been receiving the daily warning messages, but that the hazardous areas were not being plotted on the bridge, nor did the OOD have a copy of the message on the day of the incident.
C. G. FARNHAM, Capt, USN, Ret.

Thanks Captain, very interesting! Any courts-martial?

Received 14 March, 1998, from FG:
I was stationed aboard the USS Henry W. Tucker DD-875 and a team of us went aboard the Warrington after she had been decommissioned to salvage what we could use. I observed damage on the port side in the area of the screw guard, hull plating was pushed in and the entire stern appeared to be twisted upward. A look at the status board in the Engineering log room showed the notations that several of the boilers were knocked off their sliding feet and fuel oil and firemain piping was ruptured.

They had her moored out in the north forty away from everyone and everything. It was all hush hush and we were instructed not to talk about what we had seen.

Thanks FG!

Here's some GREAT email (April, 1999) from the Operations Officer at the time of the mining incident - James "Otto" Honigschmidt letters (jim@drsreferralservice.com), now a retired Captain.

And some pictures of the damage taken in Subic Bay, P.I., by "Otto", received February, 00, - Click here!

Here's more! This is a link to pictures and news articles on the mining incident provided by the (then) Supply Officer,
Ralph Heimlich on 20 DEC 99 - the Heimlich Papers. (Updated 01 OCT 00)

More comments from a spectator, Doug Hisey, who was an MM3 on the USS Hull, DD-945, on that fateful day - click here. Thanks Doug.

Anybody else with info or comments?

Some statistics:
U.S.S. Warrington	DD-843
Builder	Bath Iron Works		Bath, Maine
Laid Down	April 23rd, 1945
Launched	September 27th, 1945	Launching Photo courtesy of Angelo Trento
Commissioned	December 20th, 1945
F.R.A.M. (Level I) Completed	May, 1962	N. Y. Naval Shipyard	New York, NY
Stricken from Navy List	July 17th, 1972	mined	Sold 24 April 1973, to the Taiwan Navy for cannibalization and scrapping
DISPLACEMENT	1946		1962
Full Load	3,479 tons		3,540 tons
MAXIMUM SPEED
Full Load	34.6 knots		31.3 knots
SHIP'S COMPLEMENT
OFFICERS	22		18
ENLISTED	345		270
ARMAMENT
GUNS / SURFACE	1945	1952	1962
5" /38 Twin	6	6	4
3" /50 Twin	-	4	-
3" /50 Single	-	2	-
40mm Quad	12	-	-
40 mm Twin	4	-	-
20 mm Twin	18	-	-
TORPEDO
21" Quintuple	5	5	-
ANTI-SUBMARINE WEAPONS
Hedgehog Mark 11	-	2	-
Depth Charge Tracks (Rails)	2	1	-
Depth Charge Projectors	6	6	-
Mark 32 Torpedoes	-	-	6
ASROC (AntiSubmarine Rocket)	-	-	8
DASH (Drone AntiSubmarine Helicopter)	-	-	1
THE SHIP
DIMENSIONS
Overall Length	390' 6"
Waterline Length	383' 0"
Maximum Beam	41' 1"
Frame Spacing	21"	210 frames
Designed Draft	13' 1"
Maximum Draft	18' 6"
MACHINERY
Boilers	2 forward and 2 aft	B & W	single drum express
	Pressure	600 psi
	Temperature	855� F.
	Steam	100,000 lbs/hour	superheated
Turbines	Two sets	Westinghouse	geared
Reduction	Two sets	DeLaval	double reduction
Shaft Revolutions	312 rpm
Horsepower	60,000
Propellers	Two	four bladed
	Diameter	12' 6"
Rudders	Two	balanced	streamlined
Fuel Oil	739 tons, or
	300,000 gallons	bunker C
Diesel Oil	26.5 tons

Many of the physical statistics shown come from a sister ship, the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., DD-850, (see link below). If you know of any errors, please feel free to let me know, and I'll post corrections. Thanks.

DD-843 is the third U.S. destroyer to bear the Warrington name. The first two were DD-30 and DD-383. Captain Lewis Warrington commanded the U.S. sloop Peacock during the capture of the British sloop-of-war Epervier, on the 29th of April, 1814. Interested in more history on Lewis Warrington? See also:
West Indian Pirates.
Pensacola Navy Yard.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard,
and more Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

Here's a short history of the first USS Warrington, DD-30.

Here's a short history of the second USS Warrington, DD-383, and a picture of DD-383.

And here's some information from the Association of the USS Warrington (DD-383).

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Shipmates and ex-Destroyermen - Sign the Ship's Log!

View the Ship's Log

If the log doesn't, please be patient!
The company says they're working on it!
Looks like it's fixed (maybe) - 10/15/00

The USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., DD-850

And here's a picture of my old college roommate's ship, the U.S.S. Noxubee, AOG-56, a gasoline tanker. His name is Gary C. Hall; his rate, Yeoman. Wow! Secretary on a could-be Molotov cocktail! No thanks! Give me a "small boy" any day.

If you have any pictures of the Warrington or any of her crew that you'd like to share, please scan them and send me .jpg (they're smaller) or .gif files (they're lots bigger) at the email address below. If you don't have access to a scanner, contact me anyway; we'll work something out. I'll put them up here with full credit (no copyrighted material, please).

Here's the first one - from Angelo Trento - a picture of the Warrington in Naples, Italy, date not specified (but obviously pre-FRAM. Thanks also to Angelo for the launch-date picture above!

Here's another from Angelo, this one from a 1952 Atlantic ASW exercise, and taken from an oiler(?) during an unrep(?). What's that bird farm doing in the picture?! Anyway, nice shot! Thanks again, Angelo.

John Kangas loaned me his cruise books!

• Here are some 1966/67 Cruise Book pictures from the 'round the world cruise!

• And here are the pictures from the 1967-68 Hunter-Killer (HUK) Group Cruise - 1967/68 Cruise Book

• Cruise book for the 1969/70 Med/North Atlantic cruise - well, this is a tough one - no captions on the pictures! I've added a couple of my own (I knew some of these guys), and your notations are welcome. Different format - try it - comments are welcome on the format, too. Sooooooo, go to the 1969/70 cruise book THANKS AGAIN, John Kangas!

George Rooney has forwarded a scan of the "Ship of the Month" article from the October, 1964, issue of Our Navy magazine - Warrington "E" - Thanks George!

Thank you to Bill Palinski, now of Lorain, Ohio, for the listing of Commanding Officers.

Want to see more pictures? I'm running out of room here, so check out the Crew's Lounge! Lots more pictures here, and more coming in all the time!

Added several more pictures donated by ex-Torpedoman 2/c Barry Deatherage - 26 AUG 99. And here's a link to Barry's Home Page, which contains a section of pictures on the Warrington from the late 60s - 30 APR 00.

I just completed scanning in a cruise book for the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., DD-850, of a 1960 Med Cruise. In it, the Warrington is mentioned a couple of times (both ships were in DesRon 102), and there's even a picture or two of the "Mighty W". Check it out - JPK Cruise Book - 1960.

Here are some 1946-vintage pictures donated by Charlene Westcott. Her father was BM2 Edward D. Ledin, and the pictures were in his files - click here. Added 27 MAR 00.

Added some pictures donated by ex-BM3 Frank Gullo on 11 AUG 00 - Click Here!
Hey, I remember these guys!

Here are some 1950s-era contributions from Bill Sills - CLICK HERE! - added 31 MAR 01.

A note received 15 JUN 03:

SKC Greg Dorado was my Supply Chief on the Warrington in 1972 and was aboard when we bought the farm. He recently sent me some great pictures, which I posted on my "mirror site" at mirror site

Can you put a notice on your page so others can find them?

Thanks,
Ralph Heimlich

Sure! You're welcome. Here is the posting!

Here's a picture taken from the USS Small, DD-838, as Warrington approached for a highline in the early 1950s (pre FRAM!), courtesy of Paul E. Wieloszynski, webmaster of the USS Miles C. Fox website: Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.

A picture of the launching party supplied by Nick DiSalvo - click here.

More from Ralph Heimlich:

Robert C. Carmack was a ship yard super when the Warrington was drydocked for INSURV by Adm Bulkley. He sent a bunch of pictures of the damage that I had never seen before. Posted at archive.

My CS2 Ed Gowan had detached from the ship for school prior to the last cruise, but was in Subic late in 1972 to catch his next ship. He sent a bunch of pictures of her rusting away at the pier. I just posted them at archive.

If you could add links from your page to these I think folks would find them interesting.

/s/ Ralph Heimlich

Thanks Ralph, here they are!

Here are some picture, received 26 APR 07 from Chip Chapin. They show scenes from the last cruise of the Warrington, including the transit of the Panama Canal, some tough duty in Hawaii, scenes from the gunline in Viet Nam, and some of the aftermath of the incident.   Click here to view.

And here's picture I received in February, 2008, from Chuck Whelan, who was aboard from 1969 to 1971. It's Secretary of the Navy Chaffee, Chuck, and Captain Rockwell (or is it Zirps?).

Here's a picture of Warrington taken in 1955 from the USS Pocono AGC 16 -
Click on the thumbnail for a full size view. Thanks to Max Henke, USN Retired.

So you miss the "good ole navy days", eh? Read this - shipboard life.

Check this out - funny or sad?

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