MovieChat Forums > Mister Roberts (1955) Discussion > Destroyer in the opening

Destroyer in the opening


It's the only one of the ships in the convoy you can really see the hull number. According to Wikipedia, it's the USS Alfred A. Cunningham (DD-752):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alfred_A._Cunningham_(DD-752)

According to the history, she didn't enter the Pacific Theater until June 1945, a couple of months before WWII ended. But she did go on to serve in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. She decommissioned in 1971, struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1974, was used for target practice and sunk off the coast of Southern California in 1979.

It does show that she did pass through Pearl Harbor in 1954 (probably the time they were filming), but it doesn't say anything about being in Midway until October 1955 (the movie was released in July of 1955). But the convoy could have been filmed while near Hawaii, even though in the beginning of the movie, the actual location is at Midway. So it's likely that it's actually the Cunningham and not another vessel with a temporary "752" on the hull. And the ship as it appears in the movie is very familiar to the photo of the Cunningham on Wikipedia, when comparing the profile of the superstructure.

One of the interesting stories related to the ship was that a WWII crewman was awarded an Eagle Scout in 2007 when he was 88 years old. He had enough merit badges and fulfilled the other requirements to become, but he went off to serve before he could receive the award, and somehow getting the award got pushed off to the side over the years. The reference link for this story is dead on Wikipedia, but here's an archived story found from a Web search:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-07-28-1180372247_x.htm

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