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Home >> Hull-Spence-Monaghan

Hull-Spence-Monaghan

Ship Designation: 
-
Date Lost: 
Monday, December 18, 1944
Lost in Typhoon
At 1149 December 18 Admiral Halsey directed Commander Task Force 38 to take most comfortable courses with wind on port quarter. Seven minutes later Admiral McCain directed TF 38 to steer course 120. ... Both were sound decisions; the storm center was then about 37 miles due north, and this southeasterly course took the Fleet away from it. But by that time the ships were strung out over some 2500 square miles of ocean and it was too late for some to escape. ... The typhoon reached its greatest violence between 1100 and 1400 December 18, depending on the position of the vessel concerned. At 1345 Admiral Halsey issued a typhoon warning, to alert Fleet Weather Central to what was going on. This was the first reference to the storm as a typhoon in any official message. ...Unknown to Commander Third Fleet, three of his destroyers, USS Hull (DD-350), USS Spence (DD-512) and USS Monaghan (DD-354) had already gone down.

Lost At Sea Log

Number of sailors in this log: 718

Name Service Branchsort descending
WT 3c Felix Ashley USN
EM 3c Henry Bronis USN
MM 2c Edward Brochu USN
Ens Henry Davidson USN
F 1c Michael Bodag USN
F 2c Eugene Bingham USN
Sea 1c John Benfatti USN
Sea 2c Douglas Beaty USN
F 1c Donald Banes USN
Lt Hira Baker USN
Sea 2c Lewis Bair USN
Cox Edwin Weiser USN
Ens Alfred Anido USN
MM 2c Carl Anastoff USN
CBM Hugh Amis USN
Sea 1c George Alley USN
Sea 2c Fred Allen USN
RT 1c Malcolm Adams USN
RM 2c William Gibbons USN
Sea 2c William Adams USN

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History of US Naval Operations in World War II