Building and Commissioning
Rich was laid down on 27 March 1943 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan, the third destroyer escort to be built at that yard. She was launched on 22 June 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Ralph McMaster Rich, widow of Lt. Rich. Builder's trials before her pre-commissioning cruise were done in Lake Huron.
After completion, Rich sailed from the builder's yard at Bay City to Chicago, Illinois, where they arrived on 24 September. From there, they went through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and down the Chicago River to Joliet, Illinois, where pontoons were attached to the ship so it could be pushed down the Des Plaines River, Illinois River, and Mississippi River as part of a barge train. After arriving at the Todd Johnson Shipyard in Algiers, Louisiana, on the west bank of the Mississippi at New Orleans, the rest of the crew reported aboard, and Rich was commissioned on 1 October 1943, Lieutenant Commander E. A. Michel, Jr., USNR, in command.
Read more about this topic: USS Rich (DE-695)
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