Fate
On 26 April 1942, she departed Key West in company with a convoy. Just over two hours out of port, a violent explosion lifted Sturtevant's stern from the water, but caused no apparent damage. Thinking herself under submarine attack, the destroyer dropped two depth charge barrages. About a minute after she dropped the second barrage of charges, a second detonation rocked the ship. She began to settle rapidly, but on an even keel. Minutes later, a third explosion ripped her keel apart beneath the after deckhouse. The midships section sank immediately, and the stern settled soon thereafter. The bow, curiously, remained above water for several hours. Finally, however, all but the crow's nest disappeared beneath the waves. Sturtevant went down off Key West about 8 mi (13 km) north of the Marquesas Keys. Fifteen of her crew were lost with the ship.
Sturtevant lies as two sections in 60 ft (18 m) of water.
It was later determined that Sturtevant passed through an American-laid minefield whose existence the crew had not been notified of. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 8 May 1942.
Read more about this topic: USS Sturtevant (DD-240)
Famous quotes containing the word fate:
“What generous beliefs console
The brave whom Fate denies the goal!
If others reach it, is content:
To Heaven’s high will his will is bent.
Firm on his heart relied,
What lot soe’er betide,
Work of his hand
He nor repents nor grieves,
Pleads for itself the fact,
As unrepenting Nature leaves
Her every act.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“This generation is very sure to plant corn and beans each new year precisely as the Indians did centuries ago and taught the first settlers to do, as if there were a fate in it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the “disenchantment of the world.” Precisely the ultimate and most sublime values have retreated from public life either into the transcendental realm of mystic life or into the brotherliness of direct and personal human relations. It is not accidental that our greatest art is intimate and not monumental.”
—Max Weber (1864–1920)