USS Preston

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Named for Lieutenant Samuel W. Preston, USN (1840-1865), a naval officer killed in action during the attack on Fort Fisher, North Carolina in January 1865, the Navy built the USS Preston (DD-379) at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California and commissioned the Mahan-class destroyer in October 1936. The Preston displaced 1,488 tons and 2,103 tons when fully loaded. She had a top-rated speed of 36.5 knots driven by a power plant of four boilers, two steam turbines, and two propellers. Her armament included four 5-inch guns mounted — two forward in shielded pedestal mounts and two aft in open pedestal mounts, four .50-caliber machine guns, and 12 21-inch torpedo tubes with one quadruple mount positioned along the ship’s center-line between the two stacks, and one quadruple-mount on each side of the main deck abaft of the rear stack.

Unlike many her contemporaries, she solely operated in the Pacific for her entire existence. After war began, the destroyer performed patrol and escort duties. In the beginning of June 1942, she steamed form the U.S. west coast to Hawaii and continued to work in that area until October 1942. Her new assignment was to become part of Guadalcanal campaign. Later in October, she escorted the American carriers in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.

After a few weeks passed, the Preston joined Radm. Willis Lee’s task force that included the battleships Washington and South Dakota and another destroyer, the Gwin, that engaged a Japanese task force that had the battleship Kirishima on the second night of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. During that confrontation, the Preston became embroiled in a fierce battle with Japanese cruisers and destroyers south of Savo Island. Totally outgunned, the damage to her from Japanese gunfire proved to be fatal. A smoking wreck, the Preston quickly sank. Nevertheless, Lee’s task force prevented the potentially devastating bombardment of Henderson Field and recapturing the Japanese from recapturing Guadalcanal.