USS Sturtevant ( DD - 240 ) USS " Sturtevant " ( DD - 240 ) was a " Clemson " - class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II . She was the first ship named for Albert D . Sturtevant . " Sturtevant " was laid down on 23 November 1918 and launched on 29 July 1920 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation ; sponsored by Mrs . Curtis Ripley Smith ; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 21 September 1920 . Lieutenant Commander Ewart G . Haas assumed command of " Sturtevant " on 4 November 1920 . Inter - war period . " Sturtevant " sailed to Newport , Rhode Island , and thence proceeded to New York City . On 30 November , she departed New York to join the United States Naval Forces , European Waters . She reached Gibraltar on 10 December , and after four days continued on to the Adriatic Sea . On the 19th , she arrived at her new base , Split on the Croatian coast ( then in Kingdom of Yugoslavia ) . For the next six months , she conducted various missions from Split to the ports on the Adriatic littoral . On 16 June 1921 , the destroyer was reassigned from the Adriatic detachment to the Constantinople detachment , and , three days later commenced docking and overhaul at Constantinople . During this assignment , " Sturtevant " conducted drills in the Sea of Marmara , between the twin straits , the Dardanelles and the Bosporus , and operated in the Black Sea . She visited Samsun , Turkey ; Burgas , Bulgaria ; and Sulina and Brăila on the coast of Romania . From 25 October to 28 November , she flew the flag of Admiral Mark L . Bristol . Following this duty , the ship visited the ports of Beirut and Jaffa and then Alexandria , Egypt , and the Isle of Rhodes . In late December , she returned to Turkey at Samsun , thence to Constantinople in January 1922 , before reentering the Black Sea to visit southern Russia . From 1921 to 1923 , the Russian Civil War and a drought brought a great famine to Russia , particularly to the usually food - rich Volga region of southern Russia . America responded with nearly of food which the Bolshevik accepted , often as surreptitiously as possible . " Sturtevant " investigated potential ports of debarkation in southern Russia for the supplies soon to be shipped by the American Relief Administration . To this end , she visited Odessa , Sevastopol , Novorossiysk , Theodosia , and Yalta between early February and mid - April . Thereafter , through the end of the year , she made voyages across the Black Sea to various Russian ports in conjunction with the relief operation . She stopped at numerous other foreign ports on the voyages , including Samsun , Trebizond , and Mudania , Turkey . From July – October , she made a round - trip voyage back to the U . S . , during which she was overhauled at the New York Navy Yard and exercised out of Yorktown , Virginia . On 1 October , " Sturtevant " was ordered back to the eastern Mediterranean and , the following day , got underway for Gibraltar . She arrived there on the 14th and continued on to Turkey , reaching Mudania on the 27th . For the next seven months , the destroyer visited the ports of the eastern Mediterranean and those along the coast of the Black Sea . In addition to ports of call of the previous cruises , she visited Varna , Bulgaria ; Mersina and Smyrna , Turkey ; Piraeus , Greece ; and Naples , Italy . From the latter port , she sailed for Gibraltar in late May 1923 , and by 12 June was back at the Navy Yard in New York . She operated along the Atlantic seaboard through the end of the year , conducting gunnery exercises in October at the southern drill grounds off Virginia . In November , the ship paid an Armistice Day visit to Baltimore , Maryland . Three days before the end of the year , " Sturtevant " became flagship of Division 41 , Squadron 14 , Scouting Fleet . In early January , " Sturtevant " proceeded to the Panama Canal Zone to participate in a war problem with the Scouting Fleet . At the end of the month , she sailed with the Fleet , via Culebra Island , to Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , and the British West Indies , conducting tactical exercises along the way . In May , the destroyer returned north and operated along the east coast for the remainder of the year . In January 1925 , " Sturtevant " again headed south . After a month and a half of operations in the Caribbean , she transited the Panama Canal and entered the Pacific . She visited San Diego and San Francisco in California in April before getting underway for the Hawaiian Islands . From late April - mid - June , the ship participated in a joint Army - Navy war problem simulating the attempt of an enemy force to capture the island of Oahu . On 11 June , she set a course for San Diego and arrived on the 17th . The destroyer started on her return voyage to the Atlantic on the 22nd and reached New York City on 16 July . She cruised the Atlantic coast until mid - October , and then proceeded south for winter maneuvers out of Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . Transiting the Panama Canal in late January 1926 , she participated in fleet exercises on the Pacific side . Returning to the Atlantic side of the isthmus to resume drills and exercises in the vicinity of Cuba , " Sturtevant " steamed north to Boston , Massachusetts during the first week in May . From May 1926 to January 1931 , " Sturtevant " continued to operate with the Atlantic Fleet in Destroyer Division 41 ( DesDiv 41 ) , Destroyer Squadron 14 ( DesRon 14 ) . Each year summer operations along the north and central Atlantic coast of the U . S . were alternated with winter maneuvers in the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico . During the fall of 1930 , she was assigned Charleston , South Carolina as her homeport , but was ordered north again in January 1931 for decommissioning . On 30 January 1931 , " Sturtevant " was placed out of commission at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . She was recommissioned there on 9 March 1932 , and on 30 April reported for duty to the Commander , Special Service Squadron at Coco Solo in the Canal Zone . For the next two years , the destroyer plied waters of the Gulf and the Caribbean , supporting the activities of the marines ashore in Nicaragua , Haiti , Cuba , and other Latin American republics . Early in 1934 , she left the Special Service Squadron to rejoin the destroyers of the Scouting Force . During this tour of duty , she was home ported at Norfolk , Virginia . World War II . In the latter half of 1935 , the ship was reassigned to the Battle Force , located in the Pacific . After operating out of San Diego until 20 November , she was decommissioned once again . On 26 September 1939 , " Sturtevant " was recommissioned once more . By mid - 1940 , she was back in the Atlantic escorting convoys and conducting neutrality patrol s along the eastern seaboard . The destroyer operated out of Norfolk , in the North Atlantic until early March 1942 , then escorted a convoy from New York to the Canal Zone . There she reported for duty to the Commander , Caribbean Sea Frontier , screening convoys between the various ports of the Caribbean until late April . Fate . On 26 April 1942 , she departed Key West in company with a convoy . Just over two hours out of port , a violent explosion lifted " Sturtevant " s stern from the water , but caused no apparent damage . Thinking herself under submarine attack , the destroyer dropped two depth charge barrages . About a minute after she dropped the second barrage of charges , a second detonation rocked the ship . She began to settle rapidly , but on an even keel . Minutes later , a third explosion ripped her keel apart beneath the after deckhouse . The midships section sank immediately , and the stern settled soon thereafter . The bow , curiously , remained above water for several hours . Finally , however , all but the crow ' s nest disappeared beneath the waves . " Sturtevant " went down off Key West about north of the Marquesas Keys . Fifteen of her crew were lost with the ship . " Sturtevant " lies as two sections in of water . It was later determined that " Sturtevant " passed through an American - laid minefield whose existence the crew had not been notified of . Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 8 May 1942 .