The Ship · Reference
Chronology and specifications
USS Cony (DD-508, later DDE-508) was a Fletcher-class destroyer built by Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine, named for Civil War naval officer and merchant captain Joseph Saville Cony of Eastport, Maine. This page is deliberately last in the reading order: the people come first on this site; the hull's reference record is kept here, complete and sourced.
Chronology
- 24 Dec 1941
Keel laid at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine — Christmas Eve, three weeks after Pearl Harbor.
- 16 Aug 1942
Launched in the documented Maine mass-launch event — eight ships in one day, including Cony and sister Conway at Bath. The Navy's official history prints 30 August 1942; the conflict is carried, not resolved — see The Builders.
- 30 Oct 1942
Commissioned at Boston; Lieutenant Commander Harry D. Johnston in command.
- 27 Jan 1943
Arrived Nouméa, New Caledonia, escorting a troop convoy from Norfolk; patrols between Espiritu Santo and Efate follow.
- 6 Mar 1943
First action: bombardment of the Vila-Stanmore area.
- 15 Aug 1943
Flagship for Vice Admiral Theodore S. Wilkinson at the Vella Lavella landings.
- 27 Oct 1943
Treasury Islands: attacked with a sister destroyer by about 25 Japanese bombers; two bomb hits and a near miss — eight killed, ten wounded. Towed to Port Purvis, then Mare Island for complete overhaul. The eight are on the memorial roster.
- 27 Mar 1944
Returned to action; Bougainville patrols.
- Jun–Sep 1944
Screens the Saipan (15 June) and Tinian (24 July) landings; carrier screen for the Peleliu landings, 15–30 September.
- 24–25 Oct 1944
Battle of Surigao Strait: stationed with the battleline; dueled the Japanese destroyer Asagumo through the night and, with another destroyer and two cruisers, sank her on the morning of 25 October.
- Nov–Dec 1944
Ormoc Bay sweeps (nights of 29–30 November and 1–2 December); Mindoro screen.
- 9 Jan 1945
Lingayen Gulf landings; then Baler Bay and Caballo Island fire support, the Parang bombardment (14–19 April), Davao Gulf patrols, Brunei Bay (9 June), Balikpapan (13 June–2 July), Sarangani Bay (11–13 July).
- Sep–Dec 1945
Reached the Yangtze approaches 8 September; Shanghai harbor-entrance control ship until 19 November; Taiwan Strait minesweeping navigation ship; sailed for home 20 December.
- 18 Jun 1946
Decommissioned into reserve at Charleston (arrived 13 March 1946). Eleven battle stars for World War II service.
- 26 Mar 1949
Reclassified DDE-508 — escort destroyer specially equipped for antisubmarine warfare.
- 17 Nov 1949
Recommissioned at Boston Naval Shipyard; Commander J. A. Dodson, Jr., commanding.
- May–Dec 1951
Round-the-world cruise and Korean War: departed Norfolk 14 May; war zone 18 June–28 October; home via the Suez Canal, arriving 20 December. Two battle stars for Korean service.
- 1953–57
NATO Operation Mariner (September 1953, exercises with the Royal Navy off Northern Ireland, then a Mediterranean tour); Mediterranean again 1955 and 1957; NATO antisubmarine exercises in the English Channel, September–October 1957.
- 1959–60
Task Force Alfa, the experimental antisubmarine tactical group, East Coast operations; Quebec City visit, June 1960. DANFS's published narrative ends in 1960.
- 21 Jul 1961
Served in the NASA recovery force for Mercury-Redstone 4 (MR-4), the second crewed Mercury flight.
- 30 Jun 1962
Reverted to designation DD-508.
- 27 Oct 1962
Challenged Soviet submarine B-59 to the surface during the Cuban Missile Crisis quarantine — the centerpiece of this site: 27 October 1962.
- 23 Mar 1965
Served in the NASA recovery force for Gemini 3 (GT-3), the first crewed Gemini flight.
- Aug–Nov 1967
Vietnam deployment: gunfire support 28 August–24 September for 1st Cavalry Division operations in II Corps, then for SEAL units in the Mekong Delta; plane guard for the carrier Oriskany with TG 77.8 on Yankee Station; operated on Ganh Rai Bay 6–7 November (VA ships list).
- 2 Jul 1969
Decommissioned and stricken.
- 20 Mar 1970
Sunk as a target off Puerto Rico — as the compiled records carry it; the authoritative disposition record is an open item on this site's list.
A crew account, not a record
A crew chronology kept by a Cony veteran places the ship in the April 1961 Bay of Pigs operation. No deck log, official history, or primary document reached names Cony there, so it does not stand as an entry in the chronology above — it is carried only as that veteran's account, labeled for what it is.
Characteristics as built
| Class | Fletcher-class destroyer |
|---|---|
| Displacement | 2,050 tons |
| Length | 376 ft 6 in |
| Beam | 39 ft 7 in |
| Draft | 17 ft 9 in |
| Speed | 36 knots |
| Complement | 273 (design complement) |
| Armament | 5 × 5-inch guns · 10 × 21-inch torpedo tubes · 6 depth-charge projectors · 2 depth-charge tracks |
| Builder | Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine |
| Sponsor | Mrs. William R. Sleight |
DANFS data block governs — derivative references differ on complement and beam, and are not imported.
The documented evidence record
A ship's record is more than her chronology — it is also what archives and datasets hold about her. Asbestos Atlas maintains a USS Cony vessel record. Asbestos Atlas is sponsored by this site's publisher, Danziger & De Llano, LLP. The record carries Cony's identity and service history from the same Navy history this site relies on, and notes National Archives engineering-drawing holdings as an unretrieved archival lead. The Atlas says its CourtListener search was incomplete before any result was received, so it draws no conclusion about qualifying asbestos litigation. The record is labeled Tier 2 on the Ships evidence screen; that screening result does not certify asbestos exposure aboard Cony.
One court record does recount individual testimony touching the ship: in In re Asbestos Litigation — Rogers v. Air & Liquid Systems Corp., No. 17-1570 (D. Del.), a plaintiff testified he was stationed aboard Cony at Philadelphia in about 1967 and performed pump maintenance and decommissioning-related work. The court recounts that testimony as testimony — and recommended granting the pump defendant's motion; it is not a finding about the ship. A 2013 VA Board decision likewise records a veteran's service aboard USS Cony among several ships. These are records about individuals, cited here only to show the Atlas record's subject is real. This site carries no other statement on the subject.
The ship in the record photographs
