USS Gwin (DD-433)

USS Gwin (DD-433)

USS Gwin (DD-433), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the 3rd ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant Commander William Gwin, an American Civil War officer who commanded river boats against Confederate forces in Alabama.

Gwin was launched 25 May 1940 by the Boston Navy Yard; sponsored by Mrs. Jesse T. Lippincott, second cousin of Lt.Comdr. Gwin; and commissioned at Boston 15 January 1941, Lt.Comdr. J. M. Higgins in command.

Gwin completed shakedown training 20 April 1941 and underwent final alterations in the Boston Navy Yard before conducting neutrality patrol throughout the Caribbean Sea. On 28 September 1941 she assumed identical service in the North Atlantic from her base at Hvalfjörður, Iceland. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, she hurried back to the Eastern Seaboard, then through the Panama Canal to San Francisco, California.