USS Hale (DD-642)

Eugene Hale was born at Turner, Maine, 6 June 1836. He was admitted to the bar in 1857 and served for 9 years as prosecuting attorney for Hancock County. He was elected to the Maine legislature 1867-68, to the House of Representatives 1869-79, and succeeded Hannibal Hamlin in the Senate, serving from 1881 to 1911. Although he declined the post of Secretary of the Navy in the Hayes administration, Senator Hale performed constructive work of the greatest importance in the area of naval appropriations, especially during the early fights for the "new Navy." "I hope", he said in 1884, "that I shall not live many years before I shall see the American Navy what it ought to be, the pet of the American people." Much later in his career, he opposed the building of large numbers of capital ships, which he regarded as less effective in proportion to cost and subject to rapid obsolescence. Senator Hale retired from politics in 1911 and spent the remainder of his life in Ellsworth, Maine, and in Washington, D.C., where he died 27 October 1918.

The second Hale (DD-642) was launched 4 April 1943 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; sponsored by Mrs. G. H. Chase, granddaughter of Senator Hale; and commissioned at Boston 15 June 1943, Comdr. Karl F. Poehlmann in command.

Hale conducted shakedown training in the Caribbean and training exercises on the East Coast before departing Halifax for the Pacific combat zone 21 September. She arrived Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal 9 October 1943.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Hale II (DD-642)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.