Allied Warships

USS McKean (i) (APD 5)

Destroyer of the Wickes class

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer
Class	Wickes
Pennant	APD 5
Mod	High speed transport
Built by	Union Iron Works (San Francisco, California, U.S.A.)
Ordered
Laid down	12 Feb 1918
Launched	4 Jul 1918
Commissioned	25 Feb 1919
Lost	17 Nov 1943
Loss position	6° 31'S, 154° 52'E

History	Decommissioned at Philadelphia 19 June 1922 Towed to Norfolk in early 1940 for conversion to a high speed transport Reclassified APD-5 on 2 August 1940 Recommissioned at Norfolk 11 December 1940 USS McKean (Lt.Cmdr Ralph Lester Ramsey) was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Bougainville in position 06º31'S, 154º52'E. 64 of her crew and 52 Marines were lost.Amongst the survivors which includes the Commanding officer and there are 23 wounded as well.

Commands listed for USS McKean (i) (APD 5)

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	Commander	From	To
1	Lt.Cdr. Thomas Burrows, USN	11 Dec 1940	Dec 1941 (1)
2	John Edward Shinners, USN	1 Dec 1941	9 Nov 1942
3	T/Cdr. John Driscoll Sweeney, USN	9 Nov 1942	1 Apr 1943 (1)
4	Lt.Cdr. Ralph Lester Ramsey, USN	1 Apr 1943	17 Nov 1943 (1)

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Notable events involving McKean (i) include:

21 Mar 1942
USS McKean picks up 8 survivors from the American tanker Esso Nashville that was torpedoed and heavily damaged by German U-boat U-124 about 16 nautical miles north-east of the Frying Pan Lightship Buoy in position 33°35'N, 77°22'W.

10 May 1942
The British merchant Clan Skene is torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat U-333 about 300 nautical miles south-east of Cape Hatteras in position 31°43'N, 70°43'W. 73 survivors are later picked up by USS McKean.