O'Brien V (DD-975)
(DD-975: displacement 7,800 tons; length 563'; beam 55; draft 29; speed 32.5 knots; complement 264; armament 2 5-inch guns, 2 Mk.32 torpedo tubes; class Spruance)
Captain Jeremiah O'Brien and his five brothers, Gideon, John, William, Dennis and Joseph, were crewmembers of the sloop Unity which captured HMS Margaretta at the entrance to the harbor at Machias, Mass. (now Maine), 12 June 1775. Under the command of Jeremiah O'Brien, thirty-one townsmen armed with guns, swords, axes, and pitch forks captured the British armed schooner in an hour long battle after Margaretta had threatened to bombard the town for interference with the shipment of lumber to British troops in Boston.
V
The fifth O'Brien (DD975) was laid down by Ingalls Shipbuilding Division of Litton Industries in Pascagoula, MS, on 9 May 1975; launched 8 July 1976; sponsored by Elizabeth B. Bradford, great great grand niece of Jeremiah O'Brien, and commissioned at Pascagoula, Comdr. James J. Mullen in command on 3 December 1977.
Service data to be entered here.
O'Brien decommissioned at Pearl Harbor on 24 September 2004 and was struck from the Navy list that same day. Tapped for use in a live-fire exercise, the hulk was towed out to sea and sunk by a missile fired from HMCS Vancouver on 9 February 2006.
08 March 2006
