USS Slater DE-766

The USS Slater is a WWII Cannon Class Destroyer Escort. The warship's specifications are:

• Length: 306 feet
• Beam: 36 feet
• Draught: 10 feet
• Crew: 220
• Displacement: 1,200 tons
• Max Speed: 20 knots (23mph)
• Fuel Capacity: 279 tons of fuel oil
• Original Armament:
   Three 3 inch 50 cal.dual purpose open mounts
   Two 40mm Bofors AA
   Twelve 20mm Oerlikon AA
   Three 21 inch Torpedoes
   Two K Mount Depth Charges and 1 aft Depth Charge rack
   Twenty Four Hedge Hog Anti Submarine Mortars
• Power Plant: 4 diesel electric powerplants driving 2 screws with 6,000 Shaft Horsepower
• Launching Date: May 1, 1944 at the Tampa Shipbuilding Company Tampa, Florida
• Cost: $2,196.000

October 2017 Work Week Pictures
May 2018 Work Week Pictures
June 2019 Work Week Pictures
October 2020 Work Week Pictures
June 2021 Work Week Pictures

4/06/2014 - The USS Slater is towed down the Hudson River to a Staten Island dry dock for hull repairs and fresh paint.

NEW! Drydock pictures from the USS Slater's hull preservation and painting at Caddell Shipyard on Staten Island, NY during the spring of 2014.

• USS Slater Post Pressure Washing - April 12
• Post Media Blasting - April 19
• Bottom Primed - April 27
• Upper Hull Media Blasted and Primed - May 17
• Welding on Waterline Doubler Plates - May 25
• Welding Almost Complete - May 31
• Hull in White - Camouflage Base Coat Complete - June 8
• Hull Dazzle Camouflage Started - June 15
• Hull Dazzle Camouflage Complete June 18
• DE-766 Refloated for good June 21
• The trip home up the Hudson River, June 30, 2014

Keep up to date with the ship's latest news on the USS Slater Facebook Page.

You can visit the Destroyer Escort USS Slater DE-766 Museum in Albany, NY. I had first visited the ship with my dad back when it was first berthed at the USS Intrepid museum on the Hudson River in New York Harbor. At that time the ship was a rusty mess and missing a lot of its equipment. Today it is just fantastic! Museum Director Timothy Rizzuto and his Albany staff & volunteers have done a bang up job of cleaning, painting, restoring, and sourcing missing hardware. Personally I feel it's the best restored naval museum vessel I've visited, and I've been to a few. My dad served on the DE USS Bangust in the Pacific during the WWII and he volunteered to help with the cleanup way back when it was berthed in New York harbor along side the Intrepid. We were all so disappointed when the Intrepid staff said it must go and it left our area, but in the end it was the best thing that ever could have happened to the USS Slater. I do not think the ship would ever have gotten the care and attention to detail that the Albany staff have given it had it remained at the Intrepid Museum. And they continue to restore and open up new compartments and scour the country for period hardware and equipment.

My tour guide that day on the USS Slater was PT Boat Veteran Jack Madden, who knew the Slater from top to bottom. Jack is a great guy, and will go out of his way to make you feel welcome and understand and appreciate the USS Slater and what our fathers went through serving aboard ship during the war.

The USS Slater's staff and volunteers have done an outstanding job of returning the Destroyer Escort to it's original WWII configuration. I think it is safe to say it is the most period correct of the surviving WWII Destroyers and DEs. A Japanese film crew looking for a US WWII era Destroyer for use in a sub vs destroyer movie chose this DE above all others for the filming as it was the least modified and most accurately configured and equipped vessel of either type. The film is not yet out in the US but you can view the trailer (in Japanese) of the movie Orion in Midsummer here. There are a few quick interior scenes from the Slater as well as the firing of the side depth charges at night which the crew did on the Hudson River in Albany.

Here's a Youtube Video tour of the USS Slater.

For an idea of what life aboard a Destroyer Escort during the World War Two was like, have a look at my Dad's photos from his time serving on the Destroyer Escort USS Bangust during WWII in the Pacific Theater as an Electrician's Mate.