“Have you heard of a ship called the good Reuben James?” (If you do, it may be from the Woodie Guthrie song.) The destroyer USS Reuben James was sunk by a German torpedo while on convoy duty 80 years ago yesterday, roughly a month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the US entry into the world war against the Axis powers.
When the war in Europe broke out in September 1939, the United States declared its neutrality while at the same time establishing combined air and ship “Neutrality Patrols.” The fact that US naval ships were escorting English ships and had orders to “shoot on sight” German submarines, meant American neutrality was honored more in the breach than observance.
In 1941, Reuben James joined the force established to escort convoys sailing to Great Britain. This force escorted convoys as far as Iceland, after which the convoys became the responsibility of British escorts.
When escorting eastbound Convoy HX 156, with four other destroyers on October 31, 1941, the Reuben James was struck by a torpedo from German submarine U-552. Of the destroyer’s crew of seven officers and 136 enlisted men plus one enlisted passenger, 100 were killed, leaving only 44 enlisted men who survived the attack.
In 1941 or 1942 the singer-songwriter Woodie Guthrie wrote the song “The Sinking of the Rueben James.” Guthrie would sail as a merchant mariner from 1943 to 1945 on the ships SS William B. Travis, SS William Floyd, and SS Sea Porpoise.
Guthrie served as a mess man and dishwasher and frequently sang for the crew and troops to buoy their spirits on transatlantic voyages. I have heard a story, which may be apocryphal, that Guthrie got into trouble for singing “The Sinking of the Rueben James” for the troops being transported across the Atlantic.
On August 3, 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur boarded a Tripolitan gunboat and was engaged in combat with the Tripolitan commander, another when another Tripolitan barbary pirate came at Decatur. Reuben James blocked the attack on his captain, saving his life, and in doing so, was wounded.
USS Reuben James was one of the first ships named for an enlisted hero.
On August 3, 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur boarded a Tripolitan gunboat and was engaged in combat with the Tripolitan commander, another when another Tripolitan barbary pirate came at Decatur. Reuben James blocked the attack on his captain, saving his life, and in doing so, was wounded.
USS Reuben James was one of the first ships named for an enlisted hero.