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USS William D. Porter (DD-579) was a Fletcher-class destroyer commissioned on 6 July 1943. Its reputation as the “unluckiest ship” began when a live torpedo was accidentally fired toward USS Iowa during exercises in November 1943, while President Franklin D. Roosevelt was aboard Iowa. Iowa turned away and the torpedo exploded in its wake. Porter later sank off Okinawa on 10 June 1945 after a kamikaze attack, but every member of its crew survived.
The nickname is memorable history, not an official Navy ranking. Deck logs and contemporary records support the torpedo accident and the 1945 sinking; many of the additional stories about arrests, runaway depth charges and spectacular mishaps were added or embellished later.
Who was USS William D. Porter?
William D. Porter was destroyer DD-579, one of the U.S. Navy’s Fletcher-class destroyers. The Navy commissioned her on 6 July 1943 and named her for Commodore William D. Porter. She served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World War II and received four battle stars for her wartime service.
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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallA Fletcher-class destroyer was a fast, general-purpose escort and combatant. Such ships screened larger vessels, conducted anti-aircraft and anti-submarine work, attacked surface targets and performed patrol or radar-picket duties. Porter therefore was not a ceremonial or lightly used vessel: she operated in the same demanding fleet environment as many other destroyers of her class.
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Her later legend can obscure that record. Four battle stars document sustained operations, while the “unluckiest ship” label arose from a handful of dramatic incidents and from the way later storytellers connected them.
Key dates in Porter’s service
| Date | Event | What the record establishes |
|---|---|---|
| 6 July 1943 | Commissioned | Porter entered Navy service as Fletcher-class destroyer DD-579. |
| 14 November 1943 | Accidental torpedo launch | A live torpedo was fired during exercises involving USS Iowa; Iowa evaded it. |
| September 1944 | End of Aleutian assignment | The assignment lasted about eight months, not a full year. |
| 10 June 1945 | Sank off Okinawa | A close-aboard aircraft attack caused an underwater explosion; the crew survived. |
Why was Porter called the unluckiest ship in World War II?
The nickname combines two documented events. First, Porter nearly launched a torpedo into Iowa, a battleship carrying the president of the United States. Second, Porter was lost in the last months of the war after an aircraft shot down beside her caused a fatal underwater explosion. Those incidents are sufficiently dramatic to produce a hard-luck narrative even without the additional anecdotes that circulated afterward.
There was no Navy survey or formal list that ranked Porter as World War II’s unluckiest ship. The phrase is a retrospective nickname. It describes how the ship’s story is remembered, not a measured statistic or an official designation.
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The distinction matters because Porter’s service was effective enough to earn four battle stars. A ship can be involved in an embarrassing accident and still perform valuable combat work. Calling the crew inept on the basis of the nickname misreads both the evidence and the operational record.
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What happened when the “Willie D” fired a torpedo at USS Iowa?
The exercise and the presidential connection
On 14 November 1943, Porter was escorting Iowa with destroyers USS Cogswell and USS Young. Iowa was conducting anti-aircraft practice while the destroyers drilled torpedo attacks, using the battleship as the exercise target. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was aboard Iowa during the first leg of his trip to the Tehran Conference.
The exercise used torpedo procedures, but a live weapon remained in Porter’s number-two torpedo mount. The ship’s deck log records that the weapon was accidentally fired at 1436 while the torpedo battery was exercising at drills.
How the warning reached Iowa
Radio silence was in effect, so Porter initially tried to warn Iowa with signal lamps. The first lamp messages contained errors, delaying a clear warning. Porter eventually broke radio silence and transmitted the danger. Iowa’s log recorded the warning at 1438.
The two-minute sequence is important: the crew did not calmly watch a torpedo run toward the battleship. They recognized the mistake, attempted a visual warning, corrected the failed message and then used radio when necessary.
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How Iowa escaped
After receiving the warning, Iowa turned to port at full speed. The torpedo missed the battleship and detonated in its wake. Accounts place the explosion somewhere between roughly 100 and 1,000 yards from Iowa; the difference reflects varying descriptions of the distance rather than a hit. No ship was struck and no one was killed in the incident.
Porter’s deck log, quoted by naval historian J. M. Caiella in Naval History (June 2021), states: “1436 Torpedo accidentally fired from #2 mount while torpedo battery was exercising at drills. Investigation being held. . . . 1503 Iowa resumed firing AA practice.” The final entry shows that Iowa returned to its anti-aircraft exercise later that afternoon.
Was the whole crew of USS William D. Porter really arrested?
No. The claim that Iowa trained every gun on Porter and that the entire ship and crew were placed under arrest is not supported by the Iowa and Porter records discussed in the U.S. Naval Institute’s historical fact-check.
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An investigation did occur. It was held at Bermuda, and the captain remained in command through May 1944. That combination—an inquiry without a wholesale arrest—fits the documentary record better than the popular version in which the destroyer was seized immediately and everyone aboard was imprisoned.
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What happened to the torpedoman involved?
Lawton C. Dawson, the chief torpedoman associated with the primer failure, was transferred for court-martial and reduced one grade. Stories that he was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor and that Roosevelt personally intervened are often repeated, but the readily available records cited in the fact-check do not establish those details. They should be treated as unverified, not as settled facts.
Which other Porter “bad-luck” stories are documented?
Porter’s reputation grew through repetition. Several colorful episodes appear in later accounts but do not appear in the deck logs or official records examined by naval historians.
| Popular story | What the documentary record supports |
|---|---|
| Porter’s anchor tore equipment from Cogswell before the ships departed. | The deck logs of Porter, Cogswell and Young do not record this incident. |
| A depth charge fell accidentally, prompting an anti-submarine response. | The logs of the four ships involved do not support the story. |
| A shell landed in a base commandant’s yard. | The cited review found no documentary evidence for the claim. |
| Porter was banished to the Aleutians for a full year. | The assignment lasted about eight months and ended in September 1944. |
| The entire crew was arrested after the Iowa incident. | The logs and official history do not support a ship-wide arrest. |
These corrections do not mean that every unrecorded event was impossible. They mean that the available operational records do not substantiate the stories as normally told. A careful history separates an event that appears in a deck log from an anecdote repeated decades later.
How did USS William D. Porter sink off Okinawa?
Radar-picket duty
On 10 June 1945, Porter was serving on radar-picket duty off Okinawa. Radar-picket destroyers operated forward of the main force to detect incoming aircraft and warn larger ships. The station was dangerous because it placed relatively small ships in the path of Japanese air attacks.
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The aircraft attack and underwater explosion
A Val dive bomber attacked Porter. The destroyer’s guns shot the aircraft down close aboard, but the plane continued underwater and its bomb exploded beneath the ship. The underwater blast lifted Porter, which then came down in flames. Damage-control parties fought to save her for approximately three hours before the destroyer sank.
The Navy casualty listing records the loss as a kamikaze attack off Okinawa on 10 June. A Naval History and Heritage Command photograph catalog entry, 80-G-490024, identifies a Navy photograph showing Porter sinking after being near-missed by a kamikaze that day.
Why the loss did not become a crew tragedy
Every crew member survived the sinking. That fact is sometimes lost when the story is told as the final proof of Porter’s bad luck. The ship was lost, but the crew escaped, making the outcome catastrophic for the vessel without being a mass-casualty event.
Documented history versus legend
The most reliable way to understand Porter is to place the famous stories beside the evidence that supports or limits them.
| Documented event | Why it shaped the reputation | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Live torpedo fired during the Iowa exercise on 14 November 1943. | The target was a battleship carrying the president. | Iowa received warning, turned away and was not hit. |
| Investigation after the torpedo incident. | Later retellings converted an inquiry into a dramatic arrest story. | The captain stayed in command; only specific disciplinary action is documented. |
| Aleutian assignment. | Isolation was recast as a year-long punishment. | Records indicate about eight months, ending in September 1944. |
| Sinking off Okinawa on 10 June 1945. | The ship’s eventual loss made the earlier near-disaster seem prophetic. | The crew survived, and Porter had earned four battle stars. |
J. M. Caiella summarized the balance in Naval History in June 2021: “While she cannot claim to have had a lock on good luck—she was sunk by a kamikaze in 1945—not all of her alleged bad luck has a basis in fact.” That assessment captures why the nickname persists while also warning against treating folklore as a logbook.
What should readers remember about the “unluckiest ship” story?
Porter was a real Fletcher-class destroyer with a short but active wartime career. The accidental launch toward Iowa was a serious weapons mishap, made more consequential by Roosevelt’s presence, but it ended with a successful warning and no collision. The later sinking was a genuine combat loss: an aircraft shot down beside the ship caused a bomb to explode underneath it during radar-picket duty. All hands survived.
The ship’s four battle stars and documented Atlantic, Pacific and Aleutian service provide the necessary context. “Unluckiest ship” is a compelling label for a sequence of close calls and a dramatic loss, not evidence that Porter’s sailors were uniquely incompetent or that every colorful anecdote about her happened.
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