Seeking Deck Logs & Muster Rolls of USS Otter

I don’t know about the deck logs but I do know about the muster rolls.

(I am not an expert, just another person seeking info on family, as well.)

The NARA record set that you want is Muster Rolls of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 1/1/1939 - 1/1/1949.

National Archives Identifier: 594996

(from Record Group 24: Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, 1798 – 2007)

Ancestry.com has them digitized and online. It’s called U.S. World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949.  (My local library has access to Ancestry.com for free.)

You may be familiar with Ancestry.com but in case you aren’t, here is how to find the records:

--At the top, click Search, then Card Catalog.

--Copy and paste the following onto the search line: U.S. World War II Navy Muster Rolls, 1938-1949.  Click enter.

--Select the result.

--On the right side of the page, under “Browse this collection” enter the following info:

Ship or Shore: Ship

First Letter: O

Ship, Station, or Activity: Otter

Then select which year you wish to see (1944 thru 1947).

Go page by page until you figure out how these are organized—by date, by rank, or however.  (I am not familiar with Navy musters rolls like I am with Marine rolls so can’t tell you exactly how they are done but it should be easy to tell.)

Have fun looking through them!

Not sure if this is helpful, but some of the war diaries of the USS Otter have been digitized and are available online in the National Archives Catalog, in: Series: World War II War Diaries, Other Operational Records and Histories, ca. 1/1/1942 - ca. 6/1/1946, Record Group 38: Records of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, 1875 - 2006

https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=%22USS%20Otter%22&f.ancestorNaIds=4697018

Good luck with your research and thanks for using History Hub!

Dear Mr. Murphy,

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships and Stations, 1941 - 1983 in the Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel (Record Group 24) that include the deck log of the USS Otter (DE-210) for 21 February 1944 through 5 May 1947. These deck logs have not yet been digitized. For access to and/or copies of this log, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) via email at archives2reference@nara.gov.

As Ms. Yuhasz has already mentioned, muster rolls for the USS Otter for 1944 through 1947 may be found in the record series Muster Rolls of U.S. Navy Ships, Stations, and Other Naval Activities, 1/1/1939 - 1/1/1949. While some muster rolls can be viewed for free through the National Archives Catalog, the muster rolls for the USS Otter have not yet been posted to the Catalog.  However, they are available through Ancestry as described by Ms. Yuhasz. Ancestry is available for free at any National Archives location, and many libraries also provide free access to their patrons.

We hope this information is helpful. Best of luck with your family research!