Name USS McAnn Laid down 17 May 1943 Decommissioned 15 August 1944 Construction started 17 May 1943 Length 93 m | Namesake Donald Roy McAnn Commissioned 11 October 1943 Struck 20 July 1953 Launched 5 September 1943 | |
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Builder Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company | ||
USS McAnn (DE-179) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.
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McAnn was named after Donald Roy McAnn who received the Navy Cross for his actions during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands in 1942. The ship was laid down by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newark, New Jersey, on 17 May 1943; launched on 5 September 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Ethel Marie McAnn; and commissioned at New York on 11 October 1943, Comdr. Charles F. Hooper in command.
As Bauru she is preserved by the Brazilian Navy at Rio de Janeiro.
World War II Atlantic Ocean operations
After shakedown off Bermuda, McAnn operated along the east coast from Newport, Rhode Island, to Charleston, South Carolina, until 19 December 1943 when she departed Norfolk, Virginia, on a convoy escort run to the Panama Canal Zone. She reached Coco Solo on 26 December, thence sailed the 31st for duty out of Key West, Florida. Arriving there on 3 January 1944, she for the next several weeks with the Fleet Sound School and trained sailors in anti-submarine warfare techniques.
Assigned to Escort Division 24, McAnn sailed for the Caribbean on 29 February. Steaming via Trinidad, she joined Convoy TJ-25 on 5 March and screened the ships through stormy seas en route to Recife, Brazil. On the 15th she rescued the entire crew of 10 men from a B-17 Flying Fortress which had splashed off the Brazilian coast the day before. McAnn arrived Recife on 16 March.
Between 2 and 12 April McAnn cruised to Trinidad in the screen of Convoy JT-27, and during the next three months she completed three additional escort runs between the Caribbean and Brazil. She completed this duty on 12 July and four days later departed Recife as screen for Memphis (CL-13). She cruised the South Atlantic in search of German submarines until returning to Recife on 30 July.
End-of-War decommissioning
McAnn underwent an upkeep and then steamed to Natal, Brazil, arriving on 10 August. She decommissioned there on 15 August and was transferred, under lend lease, to Brazil on the same date. She was commissioned in the Brazilian Navy on 16 August as Comandante Bauru (D‑18). She served on loan with Brazilian Navy until 30 June 1953 when she was retransferred to Brazil, permanently, under the Mutual Defense Assistance Pact. In 1982 she became an exhibition ship/museum and is preserved at the Brazilian Navy Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro.