USS Jarvis (DD-393) - Lost With All Hands

When a ship is lost with all hands, identifying exactly what happened can be difficult. This was certainly the case with USS Edsall, where it took decades to work out her story.

Today's topic, USS Jarvis, was similarly sunk by the Japanese. Except, this time, her ultimate fate was figured out much sooner. Sailing alone for repairs, only to be attacked by torpedo bombers.

However, Jarvis tends to get overlooked. Partially because her sinking is almost like a postscript to the Battle of Savo Island. Partially because the battles off Guadalcanal are full of bigger names. Laffey, Atlanta, Juneau and so forth.

In this video, we'll give Jarvis the focus she deserves. Because this ship, and her crew, deserve to be remembered.

Further Reading:

[utbs]

Immense appreciation and respect to those USS _Jarvis_ men still on duty. Rest in peace.

[tannermutah]

Good but sad story. Interesting how ships can get "lost"like this. USS Indianapolis was a day or two from this same fate but for the aviator that saw an oil slick. Jarvis looks different without the gun director on the pilot house, a Navy "experiment" in the late 1930's. Thank you Skynea History for remembering these vessels and telling their stories.

[JGCR]

The pic at 10:56, the G4M Betty flying extremely low on the right was flown by Yun Takahashi, who died a few years ago at well over 100 years of age. He had been the oldest active commercial pilot in the world by then.

[Applekrate]

Nicely done, recommended. I've known about the loss of Jarvis for a long time through many readings but, as the video states- not much else was known, no details of her loss, etc. So, am appreciative of your work researching and sharing here on video. Remembering and appreciating all the fine men who paid the ultimate price in this loss that is mostly forgotten.

[Normandy]

The brave stories of those who never returned need more recognition in tales such as Skynea History reminds us of.

[MercedesES-AMG]

My grandfather has on the USS Buck DD420. It was sunk off the coast of Italy by a uboat. They thought they got all the pins back into the depth charges before it sank. They didn't. There was a huge explosion when the ship got down to the explosion depth. A lot of his shipmates were killed in water that blast. He was temporarily paralyzed by the blast. The survivors that were left were rescued the following day because he took one of the life boats paddles, got it wet & used it with the sunlight to signal a search plane that happened to in the distance. If you look at the navy paperwork on the internet he was credited for getting them rescued. He always received a purple heart because he was hurt by some metal from that huge depth charge blast. They had recently credited for sinking a Italian submarine (Argento) like a day or two prior to being sunk by the german uboat.

[metaknight]

I always find it interesting reconstructing the actions of ships sunk with all hands.

[metaknight]

I finally finished my edits to the Wikipedia page of the Japanese destroyer Amatsukaze, and that is a ship that is worthy of a video. I'd recommend checking it out if you want to know the ship's career, I'm rather proud of my complete rewrite

[terrymarshall]

I live in Cody Wyoming and our nearest town is Powell Wyoming. Powell has a very nice war memorial to it's War dead. One of the names is a sailor lost on the USS Jarvis. It does say his ship the Jarvis was lost with all hands.

[michaelfranklin]

I read somewhere that the USS Jarvis had ditched her life rafts the day before being sunk. Speculation was that her survivors lingered in the water until the oppressive sun, humidity, and thirst finally overwhelmed them. With no radio, an SOS couldn't have been sent out to alert the Allies of the crew's peril.

[alephalon]

First Edsall and now Jarvis. The Japanese keep on mistaking damaged destroyers for cruisers, huh? Joking aside, it's great to learn more about the less famous ships in any navy, especially since you also covered Jarvis' namesake sailor.

[TBauer-sb]

The Benham/Bagley class DD's are seriously under rated. Fastest DD's made until the Spruance class well after WWII. My Great Uncle served in that campaign and was lost on the USS New Orleans when her bow was shot off at Tassafarange.

[thereissomecoolstuff]

This was a better than avg episode. Your monotone was particularly dictifying. Thanks for all these videos. These “Forgotten ships” need their stories told. I subscribe to a channel “Shipwreck Sundays” a young mom that does weekly analysis of commercial and military sinkings, including Japanese ships. Merry Xmas and keep them coming.

[yoohoo]

Fascinating story of this DD, especially the ships name origin of a 13 year old midshipman, quite common as the life expectancy at the time was 40 or so.
"Iron men, wooden ships".

[johnsepulveda]

It’s really sad how many ships have went down with their whole crews may they rest in peace

[kennethhanks]

Knowing the state of the US torpedoes (deep running, etc) in '39 when the "attack" on the San Francisco occurred probably no significant damage would have occured, practice warheads or not!

[michaelmclaren]

Seems strange that almost hitting a cruiser with two training torpedoes in training would’ve been considered an embarrassment to the ship. That’s what they were training to do.

[MichaelCampin]

Maybe a history of Jack Cornwall VC who has a blue plaque on a house in Hornchurch in Essex

[albertvoytekiii]

My grandfather served on the uss gridley DD 380 in wwii

[briankorbelik]

The story of the USS Jarvis has always haunted me.