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USS ''Bull'' (DE-693/APD-78) was a , later converted to a ''Charles Lawrence''-class high speed transport. She was the second Navy ship named after Lieutenant (junior grade) Richard Bull (1914–1942), a naval aviator who was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. ''Bull'' was the first of many destroyer escorts built at Defoe Shipbuilding Company, of Bay City, Michigan. The hull of ''Bull'' was constructed in the conventional fashion while the jigs and fittings were constructed in order to build the rest of the ships in a new upside-down method that Defoe pioneered. ''Bull'' was launched on 25 March 1943 at the Defoe yard; sponsored by Mrs. Ruth P. Bull, widow of Lt.(jg) Bull. She was commissioned 12 August 1943, Lt. D. W. Farnham, USNR, in command. == USS ''Bull'' (DE-693) == Following her shakedown training out of Bermuda, ''Bull'' escorted the Army transport USAT ''George Washington'' to Norfolk, Virginia, and then continued on to Boston, Massachusetts, where she arrived on 4 October 1943 for post-shakedown availability. The destroyer escort touched briefly at New York City; proceeded thence to Curaçao, in the Dutch West Indies, and then headed across the Atlantic to Derry, Northern Ireland, on her first convoy-escort mission. Following her return to New York on 9 December, ''Bull'' operated out of Cape Cod Bay through the end of 1943 with Fleet Air, Atlantic, towing targets used by Navy planes practicing radar and dive-bombing tactics. ''Bull'' was then assigned to Escort Division 19 (CortDiv 19); at this time, consisting of the destroyer escorts ''Bull'', , , , , and . ''Bull'' returned to New York on 3 January 1944 where she joined Task Group 21.9 (TG 21.9) and headed back to Derry on 9 January. She reached that port 10 days later and remained there for a little over a week. After putting to sea again on 27 January bound for New York, the warship encountered heavy seas a day out of port and began shipping a lot of water. Some of the water found its way into her number two engine room through an exhaust blower duct, which shorted out a circuit and caused a fire. Fortunately, her crewmen put out the blaze before it caused serious damage. While the destroyer escort battled her way through a hurricane on 3 February, ammunition tumbled from storage racks that had been torn loose by the storm and caused a few anxious moments before it was battened down. High winds and heavy seas also loosened the grips holding the ship's motor whaleboat in place and jostled the foremast so much so that it required a strengthening jury rig. Finally the storm-battered warship reached New York on 9 February. Following an availability at New York, ''Bull'' conducted refresher training out of Casco Bay, Maine, before proceeding to Boston to pick up another transatlantic convoy. Departing Boston on 28 February, she shepherded her charges across the U-boat-infested ocean to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she arrived on 8 March. She returned to New York on 25 March, she conducted one additional round-trip transatlantic convoy escort cycle that spring and returned to Boston on 1 May. After an availability at the New York Navy Yard, she escorted one additional convoy to England between 12 and 23 May, and remained in the British Isles with the naval forces gathering for the cross-channel invasion of France. Instead of supporting the landings on Normandy's beaches, however, ''Bull'' joined the escort of a convoy back to the United States. ''Bull'' escorted one more convoy to England and then returned to the United States with TG 21.9 in July. On 24 July 1944, while en route to New York, the destroyer escort picked up what she interpreted as submarine noises and promptly sent depth charges and hedgehog projectiles into the depths from which the sounds had come. No evidence of a "kill" appeared after the attack, so the destroyer escort rejoined her charges and reached New York with them on 27 July. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Bull (DE-693)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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