USS Bancroft (DD-256)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Bancroft.

As HMCS St. Francis during the Second World War
History
United States
Name:	USS Bancroft
Namesake:	George Bancroft
Builder:	Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Fore River Shipyard, Quincy
Cost:	$1,218,962.89 (hull and machinery)
Laid down:	4 November 1918
Launched:	21 March 1919
Commissioned:	30 June 1919
Decommissioned:	24 September 1940
Struck:	8 January 1941
Identification:	DD-256
Fate:	Transferred to Canada, 24 September 1940
Canada
Name:	HMCS St. Francis
Namesake:	St. Francis River
Commissioned:	24 September 1940
Decommissioned:	1945
Honours and awards:	Atlantic 1941-43
Fate:	declared surplus 1 April 1945. sank July 1945 off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, en route to scrapping.
General characteristics
Class & type:	Clemson-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,216 tons
Length:	314 ft 4 in (95.81 m)
Beam:	31 ft 8 in (9.65 m)
Draft:	9 ft 10 in (3.00 m)
Propulsion:	26,500 shp (19.8 MW); geared turbines, 2 screws
Speed:	35 knots (65 km/h)
Range:	4,900 nautical miles (9,100 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:	122 officers and enlisted
Armament:	4 × 4-inch (102 mm) guns 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) gun 12 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes

The second USS Bancroft (DD-256) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy, and transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy, where she served as HMCS St. Francis during World War II.

As USS Bancroft

Named for George Bancroft, she was launched 21 March 1919 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, sponsored by Miss Mary W. Bancroft, great granddaughter of George Bancroft; and commissioned 30 June 1919, Lieutenant Commander H. S. Haislip in command.

Bancroft joined the Atlantic Fleet and took part in fleet training activities until 26 November 1919 when she went into reserve commission. She was placed out of commission at Philadelphia 11 July 1922.

Bancroft was recommissioned 18 December 1939 and served with the Atlantic Squadron on the east coast until decommissioned at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and transferred to Great Britain in the destroyer-land bases exchange 24 September 1940.

As HMCS St. Francis

The destroyer HMCS St. Francis, which is escorting a convoy, prepares to take on fuel from a tanker at sea, 7 November 1942

Bancroft was allocated to the Royal Canadian Navy and was taken over by the Canadians 24 September 1940. Following the Canadian practice of naming destroyers after Canadian rivers (but with deference to the U.S. origin), St. Francis was named after the St. Francis River forming the border between northern Maine and Quebec and New Brunswick. St. Francis left Halifax 15 January 1941 and arrived in the River Clyde, Scotland, 26 January. She joined the 4th Escort Group and on 20 May she rescued all the survivors of the steamship Starcrose which had to be sunk after being torpedoed by a submarine. At the end of June she escorted a troop convoy to the Middle East and in July she joined the newly formed Newfoundland Escort Force. Between 1941 and 1943 St. Francis made several attacks on enemy submarines while escorting convoys ON-95, SC-85, ON-105, HX-197, and ON-116 with Mid-Ocean Escort Force group C-4. St. Francis subsequently escorted convoy ON-121 with Escort Group C-3, convoy SC-99 with Escort Group C-1, and convoy ON-147 with Escort Group C-4.

After refitting at Halifax, St. Francis joined Escort Group C.2 in the Western Approaches Command in June 1943 but in August was transferred to the 9th Escort Group (RCN), working from Londonderry Port, Northern Ireland. She returned to the Western Local Escort Force at Halifax the following month. From early 1944 she was employed on training duties at Digby, Nova Scotia, where on 1 April 1945 she was declared surplus.

On her way to Baltimore to be scrapped by the Boston Iron & Metal Co. in July 1945, she sank as a result of a collision off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Trans-Atlantic convoys escorted

Convoy	Escort Group	Dates	Notes
SC 49		14-21 Oct 1941	Newfoundland to Iceland
SC 55		19-25 Nov 1941	Newfoundland to Iceland
SC 71		27 Feb-9 March 1942	Newfoundland to Northern Ireland
ON 76		16–23 March 1942	Northern Ireland to Newfoundland
SC 78		9–16 April 1942	Newfoundland to Northern Ireland
ON 90		5–9 May 1942	Northern Ireland to Newfoundland
SC 85	MOEF group C4	31 May-12 June 1942	Newfoundland to Northern Ireland
ON 105	MOEF group C4	20–27 June 1942	Northern Ireland to Newfoundland
HX 197	MOEF group C4	9–16 July 1942	Newfoundland to Northern Ireland
ON 116	MOEF group C4	26 July-1 Aug 1942	Northern Ireland to Newfoundland
ON 121	MOEF group C3	20-22 Aug 1942	Iceland to Newfoundland
SC 99	MOEF group C1	9-19 Sept 1942	Newfoundland to Northern Ireland
ON 147	MOEF group C4	20-23 Nov 1942	Northern Ireland to Newfoundland
ON 146	MOEF group B3	29 Nov-5 Dec 1942	Northern Ireland to Newfoundland
SC 127	WLEF	16–20 April 1943	Halifax to Newfoundland
ONS 4	WLEF	29 April-5 May 1943	Newfoundland to Halifax
HX 240	WLEF	21–25 May 1943	Halifax to Newfoundland
HX 242	MOEF group C2	6–14 June 1943	Newfoundland to Northern Ireland
ON 190	MOEF group C2	25 June-1 July 1943	Northern Ireland to Newfoundland
ONS 19	9th escort group	27 Sept-9 Oct 1943

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/256.htm