USS FARQUHAR USS FARQUHAR 
On February 13, 1943 the USS Farquhar waslaunched in Orange Texas. The ship was commissioned the following August 5,1943. The ship proceeded through sea trials to Bermuda, arriving on August 26. On October 2, 1943, the USS Farquhar departed on the first of many crossings of theAtlantic on convoy duty. Convoy escort duty continued until Spring of 1944 with interruptions for "refresher" training periods in between. The USS Farquhar was part of Destroyer Escort Division Nine. DE Division Nine consisted of six destroyer escorts; The USS Douglas L. Howard (DE-138),the USS Farquhar (DE-139), the USS J.R.Y. Blakely (DE-140), the USS Hill (DE-141), the USS Fessenden (DE-142), and the USS Fiske (DE-143).
On June 15, 1944, The DE-139 was underway with the USS Wake Island,(CVE-65), as part Destroyer Escort Division Nine, with Task Group 22.6. After making another Atlantic crossing to Casablanca, Task Group 22.6 was on the homeward leg. The Task Group had been assigned to "hunter-killer" ASW duty. The USS Fiske, (DE-143), and the USS Douglas L. Howard, (DE-138), were detached from TaskGroup to investigate a conning tower and diesel smoke on the horizon. The
In the early hours of May 6, 1945 the USS Farquhar was in a convoy screen as part of Destroyer Escort Division Nine, four days out of Argentina Newfoundland,bound for New York. She made sonar contact at just 1300 yards and made an urgent 13 depth charge attack. The Farquhar and the accompanying DE's made sweeps of the area for almost 13 hours finding no further contacts. The next day Germany surrendered. Post warevaluation revealed that The USS Farquhar sank the last German U-Boat in the Atlantic in World War Two:The U-881.
When the Atlantic U-Boat threat subsided, the USS Farquhar was assignedto Pacific duty. The Farquhar was on hand when the Japanese surrendered the island of Ponape.
The USS Farquhar was one of approximately 560 "trim but deadly" little ships that performed the vital task of escort duty in World War two.Destroyer Escorts operated where it was impractical for the larger Destroyers to operate. DE's performed a vital duty by escorting convoys in all stages of the War, and by performing "hunter-killer" operations against the German and Japanese submarine threat in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. DE's also performed vital duty in the role of being able to run in and pick up survivors of ship sinkings and downed allied aircraft".
A very rare first hand look at the "Shellback Ceremony "performed on board many ships when sailors cross the equator for the first time.
Destroyer Escorts were designed in six basic configurations differing in armament, power plant, and hull length. The classes were: EVARTS, CANNON, BUCKLEY, EDSALL, RUDDERROW, and BUTLER. The DE's were relatively small, being only 289 to 306 feet overall length, and 36 feet at the beam. In various configurations there were anywhere from 186 to 210 men on board.The USS Farquhar was of the Edsall class of ships. Eighty five Edsall Class ships were built with the first commissioned on April 10,1943. The Edsall Class ships were built in Orange Texas by Consolidated Steel Co. and in Houston, Texas by Brown Shipbuilding.
The USS Pillsbury and the USS Chatelaine were also Edsall Class DE's. The USS Pillsbury, (DE-133), and the USS Chatelaine (DE-149), part of task group 22.3, participated in the only
capture of a German U-boat during World War Two. The U-505 has been preserved and is now on display in Chicago.