The USS William D. Porter was a Fletcher-class destroyer commissioned for the US Navy in 1943, and while such ships usually serve for decades, a string of rather unfortunate events saw the Porter’s career last a mere three years. The Porter was tasked with an escort mission early on, but from the start there were signs of trouble, even before she left dock. It would appear someone had forgotten to raise the Porter’s anchor all the way, and as a result, the anchor was dragged across the moored deck of her sister ship, causing significant damage.
The Porter was tasked with escorting the USS Iowa across the Atlantic Ocean to an important summit in Iran. The mission was of paramount importance, for aboard the Iowa were none other than the president of the United States, the secretary of state and the joint chiefs of staff, who had a secret appointment with Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill.
The convoy was travelling through treacherous waters, so training exercises were important to keep the crew on guard. During actual battle scenarios, a destroyer would drop depth charges if an enemy submarine got too close, and so one of the drills involved sending out fake depth charges. Of course, the crew of the Porter forgot to disable their anti-submarine weapons, and somehow one of the armed depth charges managed to fall off the deck into the ocean, dangerously close to the Iowa, and the president. The situation was a mess, but luckily President FDR escaped unscathed, though the incident would forever go down in infamy.
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