USS Putnam (DD-757)

Charles Flint Putnam was born in Freeport, Illinois 1 December 1854 and entered the Naval Academy at the age of 14. Upon his request at graduation in 1873, he was ordered to the Far East in Kearsarge, serving in that vessel with the Asiatic Squadron until 1875. Master Putnam was stationed at San Francisco in 1876 and was attached to schoolship Jamestown in 1877-78. In 1879 he joined the Coast Survey steamer Hassler in the North Pacific. Putnam volunteered in 1881 for service in Rodgers, fitted out to search for Jeanette, which had been lost in the Arctic on an expedition to reach the North Pole. When Rodgers burned at St. Lawrence Bay, Siberia, 30 November 1881, Putnam took supplies to the survivors on dog sledges. On his return to his depot at Cape Serdze, he missed his way in a blinding snow storm 10 January 1882, drifted out to sea on an ice-floe and was never heard from again.

The second Putnam (DD-757), a flush-decked, "shorthulled" Sumner class, all-purpose destroyer, was laid down 11 July 1943 by Bethlehem Steel Co., Shipbuilding Division, San Francisco, Calif.; launched 26 March 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Doana Putnam Wheeler; and commissioned 12 October 1944, Comdr. Frederick V. IT. Hilles in command.

Following shakedown off the Pacific coast, Putnam glided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge 30 December 1944 to take her place with the Pacific Fleet. Arriving Pearl Harbor 2 January 1945, the destroyer prepared for her first offensive operation, and got under way 29 January for the Marianas, screening the transports carrying 4th and 5th Division Marines.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Putnam II (DD-757)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.