View source for USS Booth

{{short description|Cannon-class destroyer escort}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
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{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=USS Booth (DE-170) at Truk Lagoon on 27 October 1945.jpg
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag= {{USN flag|1946}}
|Ship name=USS ''Booth''
|Ship namesake=Ensign Robert Sinclair Booth
|Ship ordered= 
|Ship builder=[[Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company]], [[Newark, New Jersey]]
|Ship laid down=30 January 1943
|Ship launched=21 June 1943
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=19 September 1943
|Ship decommissioned=14 June 1946
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|Ship struck= 15 July 1978
|Ship renamed=
|Ship reclassified=FF-170, 30 June 1975
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|Ship nickname=
|Ship honors=
|Ship fate=Transferred to the [[Philippines]], 15 December 1967
|Ship notes=
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{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country= Philippines
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Philippines|naval}}
|Ship name= {{BRP|Datu Kalantiaw|PS-76|2}}
|Ship namesake=
|Ship acquired=  
|Ship commissioned= 15 December 1967
|Ship decommissioned= 
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=
|Ship homeport=
|Ship motto=
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|Ship fate= Lost during Typhoon Clara, 21 September 1981, {{coord|19.39017440035165|121.39150737073103}}
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Header caption=
|Ship class= {{sclass|Cannon|destroyer escort}}
|Ship displacement=*{{convert|1240|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} standard
*{{convert|1620|LT|t|0|abbr=on}} full
|Ship length=*{{convert|306|ft|m|abbr=on}} [[Length overall|o/a]]
*{{convert|300|ft|m|abbr=on}} [[Length at the waterline|w/l]]
|Ship beam= {{convert|36|ft|10|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draft= {{convert|11|ft|8|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth=
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|Ship propulsion=4 × GM Mod. 16-278A [[diesel engine]]s with electric drive, {{convert|6000|shp|0|abbr=on}}, 2 [[Propeller|screws]]
|Ship speed= {{convert|21|kn|lk=in}}
|Ship range= {{convert|10800|nmi|km|abbr=on}} at {{convert|12|kn|abbr=on}}
|Ship complement=15 officers and 201 enlisted
|Ship armament=*3 single × Mk.22 [[3-inch/50-caliber gun]]s
*1 × twin [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|40 mm Mk.1 AA gun]]
*8 × [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|20 mm Mk.4 AA guns]]
*3 × [[American 21-inch torpedo|21 inch (533 mm)]] [[torpedo tube]]s
*1 × [[Hedgehog (weapon)|Hedgehog]] Mk.10 [[anti-submarine mortar]] (144 rounds)
*8 × Mk.6 [[depth charge]] projectors
*2 × Mk.9 depth charge tracks
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'''USS ''Booth'' (DE-170)''' was a {{sclass|Cannon|destroyer escort}} built for the [[United States Navy]] during [[World War II]].  She served in the [[Atlantic Ocean]] and then the [[Pacific Ocean]] and provided escort service against [[submarine]] and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.

She was laid down on 30 January 1943 at [[Newark, New Jersey]], by the [[Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock]] Co.; launched on 21 June 1943; named for Ensign Robert Sinclair Booth, who was assigned to {{USS|Arizona|BB-39|6}} at [[Pearl Harbor]], the first [[Washington, DC]] serviceman to die in the war; sponsored by Mrs. Annie L. Booth; towed by ocean-going tug {{USS|Sagamore|AT-208|2}} from her building yard to [[Norfolk, Virginia]], via the [[Cape Cod Canal]] (24–26 June 1943), completed at the [[Norfolk Navy Yard]]; and commissioned there on 18 September 1943.

== World War II Atlantic Ocean operations==

After fitting out, ''Booth'' put to sea from [[Hampton Roads, Virginia]], on 14 October 1943 for her [[shakedown cruise|shakedown]]. The [[destroyer escort]] returned to Norfolk from the [[Bermuda]] area on 13 November and entered the navy yard for post-shakedown availability. From 1 December to the 17th, she was at [[Washington, D.C.]], taking part in experimental work at the [[United States Naval Research Laboratory|Naval Research Laboratory]] at [[Bellevue, Washington, D.C.|Bellevue]] and the [[Washington Navy Yard]]. During the latter part of the month, ''Booth'' helped to train prospective destroyer escort crews in the Hampton Roads area.

At the beginning of 1944, the [[warship]]'s division, Escort Division ([[CortDiv]]) 15, became a part of [[Task Force]] (TF) 62. Over the next 16 months, ''Booth'' and her division mates completed eight round-trip voyages to the [[Mediterranean]] and back escorting UGS (Slow Eastbound) and GUS (Slow Westbound) [[convoys]], and she logged [[Gibraltar]], [[Casablanca]], [[Bizerte]], [[Palermo]], and [[Oran]], as eastern termini. Though she investigated a number of [[Sonar|sound contacts]] for possible enemy [[submarine]]s, her only verifiable scrape with the Germans came from the air when planes attacked Convoy UGS-48 off [[Cape Bengut]], Algeria, on the night of 1 August 1944. The convoy's anti-aircraft gunners repulsed the attack quickly, and none of the ships in the convoy suffered any damage.

== World War II Pacific Theatre operations==

With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, ''Booth'' began preparations for service in the Pacific theater. After a week of training near [[Guantánamo Bay]], Cuba, the destroyer escort set course for the [[Panama Canal]]. She transited the isthmian waterway on 10 June and, after visiting [[San Diego, California|San Diego]] and [[San Francisco, California]], departed the latter port on 26 June. The warship escorted motor vessel {{MV|Permanente}} to Pearl Harbor, arriving there on 2 July.

''Booth'' then trained in the [[Hawaiian Islands]] for almost two weeks before getting underway on the 15th to proceed [[Eniwetok]], in the [[Marshall Islands]], for the [[Marianas]]. She arrived at [[Saipan]] on 26 July. After making one round-trip convoy escort mission between Saipan and [[Iwo Jima]] with convoys SIW-62 and IWS-54, ''Booth'' put to sea on 9 August for [[Ulithi]] [[Atoll]], [[Caroline Islands]]. She reported in at Ulithi the following day and, on the 12th, embarked upon the first of two convoy runs to [[Okinawa Island|Okinawa]], beginning with convoy UOK-47 and returning with OKU-20. On the same day the surrender document was being executed on board {{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}} in [[Tokyo Bay]] (2 September), ''Booth'' was getting underway at Okinawa to return to Ulithi with convoy OKU-25 (her Okinawa-bound leg having been with UOK-52) from the second of those convoy screening missions.

== End-of-War Occupation Duties ==

During the autumn of 1945, ''Booth'' assisted occupation forces in accepting the surrender of bypassed islands and in repatriating their [[garrisons]]. On 8 September 1945, she set out from Ulithi with Lt. [[Kumura Fumio]] and Cpl. [[Kanichi Suzuki]], representatives of the [[Imperial Japanese Army]], embarked, to investigate Japanese installations and activities on [[Sorol Island]], in the Western [[Caroline Islands|Carolines]]. Manning her 3-inch and 40-millimeter guns, ''Booth'' put ashore a landing party under Comdr. J.W. Buxton later that day, recovering the men a little over two hours later. The destroyer escort put the landing party ashore on Sorol again the following morning, recovering them soon thereafter and moving on to proceed toward [[Eauripik]] Island, arriving there the following day to put a force ashore to reconnoiter the island. After recovering her men shortly before noon, ''Booth'' arrived off [[Ifalik]] Island that afternoon. Her landing party visited that island during the day on 11 September, and then returned to [[Ulithi]] the following day (12 September).

On 11 October, ''Booth'' put to sea with Lt. Col. Lyman D. Spurlock, USMC (who was relieved by Maj. Robert J. J. Picardi on 30 October), and party, on a four-week assignment evacuating Japanese forces from [[Chuuk Lagoon|Truk]], [[Nomoi Islands|Nomoi]], and [[Puluwat]] atolls and preparing those places for the arrival of U.S. occupation forces. The warship arrived at [[Guam]] on 7 November but returned to sea the following day bound for the United States with 2 officers and 45 enlisted marines for transportation.

== Post-War decommissioning ==

Steaming via Pearl Harbor, San Diego, and the [[Panama Canal]], the destroyer escort arrived in [[Green Cove Springs, Florida]], on 28 January 1946, where she was decommissioned on 14 June 1946. Towed from [[Mayport, Florida]], to [[Charleston, South Carolina]], by the auxiliary ocean tug {{USS|Tunica|ATA-178|2}} (10–11 April 1947) ''Booth'' was placed in "deferred disposal status pending possible transfer to a foreign government" on 7 July 1947, and two days later was towed back to Mayport by ''ATA-209'', where the former convoy escort was inactivated on 28 July 1947.

== ''Booth'' converted to ''Datu Kalantiaw'' (PS-76) ==

''Booth''{{'}}s "possible transfer to [a] foreign government" ultimately came to pass. Reconditioned by the [[Brewer Dry Dock]] Co., [[Staten Island, New York]], the ship was loaned to the Republic of the [[Philippines]] under the [[Military Assistance Program]] on 15 December 1967. The [[Philippine Navy]] commissioned her on that day at the [[Philadelphia Navy Yard]] as {{ship|BRP|Datu Kalantiaw|PS-76}}. On 30 June 1975, while she was still operating on loan under a foreign flag, the destroyer escort was re-designated a [[frigate]], FF-170. Subsequently, given the Philippine Navy's continuing need for the ship "in the interest of National Defense Requirements and in the furtherance of the Security Alliance between the [Philippines] and the United States," the U.S. Navy disposed of her by Foreign Military Sale and ''Booth'' was stricken from the [[Naval Vessel Register]] on 15 July 1978.

[[File:Aerial view of the capsized Philippine frigate BRP Datu Kalantiaw (PS-76) on Calayan Island, Philippines, on 22 September 1981 (6365749).jpg|thumb|The foundered ''Datu Kalantiaw'' on the coast of [[Calayan Island]], 1981.]]

''Datu Kalantiaw'' continued to serve under the Philippine flag until [[Typhoon Clara (1981)|Typhoon Clara]] drove her aground on 21 September 1981 on the rocky northern shore of [[Calayan Island]], in the northern Philippines. The [[ammunition ship]] {{USS|Mount Hood|AE-29|6}}, as she neared [[Subic Bay]] that day, slated for a period of upkeep, received orders to "get underway again that evening to coordinate rescue operations" at the scene of the tragedy. Consequently, ''Mount Hood'', working in concert with Philippine Navy units "in a most adverse weather environment," retrieved 49 bodies in two days of operations, and ultimately sailed for [[Manila]] to turn them over to Philippine authorities, rescuers no longer hearing tapping from inside the ship that lay on her beam ends where Clara had cast her. Soon thereafter, Rear Admiral Simeon Alejandro, Flag Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy, "made an emotional address to the officers and men of Mount Hood upon the ship's arrival on Manila," the auxiliary's historian records, "thanking each man for his part in the mission and offering the gratitude of the Philippine nation to the Captain and crew." One contemporary account called the loss of ''Datu Kalantiaw'' "one of the worst disasters in the history of the Philippine Navy," 79 of the 97-man crew perishing.

== References ==
{{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/b/booth-i.html}}

==External links==
* {{navsource|06/170|USS Booth (DE-170)}}

{{Cannon class destroyer escort}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth (DE-170)}}
[[Category:Cannon-class destroyer escorts of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built in Kearny, New Jersey]]
[[Category:1943 ships]]
[[Category:World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States]]
[[Category:Datu Kalantiaw-class frigates]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Philippine Sea]]