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Re: WWII Ship Logbooks on "Special List #44": Date Ranges
Rebecca Collier
Aug 20, 2018 11:17 AM
3 people found this helpfulDear Mr. Mathews,
Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!
The dates of the deck logs for ships listed in Special List #44 indicate what the National Archives had custody of as 1978 when the list was published. Depending on the ship and what happened to the ship during WWII, the National Archives may have received additional deck logs since then. Please provide us with the name of hull designation for the ship you are interested in and we will gladly let you know what deck logs are available.
We hope this information is helpful.
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Re: WWII Ship Logbooks on "Special List #44": Date Ranges
Thank you for your reply. The ship I'm interested in is DE-197, Roche [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Roche]. Special List #44 shows an end date of 30 June 1945 for the deck logs. The most significant event for that ship happened 29 September 1945 while escorting a hospital ship in the Sea of Japan as protection against Japanese submarines that might not have received word of Japan's surrender a few weeks earlier. Roche struck a mine during that escort, which caused several fatalities and numerous injuries. Roche was towed to Tokyo Bay, declared beyond economical repair, and later sunk. My father was a quartermaster on Roche, and one of his duties was keeping the ship log. He researched getting a copy of the rough log before he died some years ago but did not actually obtain a copy. I'm interested in any log available, but it would be good to have a complete record (or at least includes entries for late September-early October 1945).
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Re: WWII Ship Logbooks on "Special List #44": Date Ranges
Rebecca Collier
Aug 21, 2018 9:59 AM
2 people found this helpfulDear Mr. Mathews,
Thank you for posting your follow-up request on History Hub!
We searched the Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships and Stations, 1941-1983 and located deck logs of the USS Roche (DE-197) for February 21, 1944 to March 11, 1946. We also searched the Muster Rolls and Personnel Diaries of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 1/1/1949 - 12/31/1971 and located muster rolls of the USS Roche for the same time period. For access to these records, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) via email at archives2reference@nara.gov.
According to the Department of the Navy records management regulations, only the deck logs of major combatant and support ships are considered permanent records and eventually accessioned into the custody of the National Archives. Other types of logs (engineer, engine room, quarter deck, sick bay or sick call, radio, and quartermaster) are deemed to be temporary records and destroyed by the Navy after initial administrative use.
We hope this information is helpful. Best of luck with your research!
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