USS Frank Knox
DD-742
(Gearing Class)

Photo Submitted By:
Dwight Smith
[email protected]

Builder:       Bath Iron Works
Laid Down:     May 8, 1944
Launched:      September 17, 1944
Commissioned:  December 11, 1944
Fate:          To Greece January 30, 1971

We are seeking information on the USS Frank Knox and her crews. Files and photos may be emailed to us and we will incorporate them into this page. When enough information has been assembled we will then build the ship her own section.

The Gearing Class as Constructed

          Displacement:  2,616 tons (3,460 tons full load)
          Length:        390 feet 6 inches
          Beam:          40 feet 10 inches
          Draught:       14 feet 4 inches (mean)
          Machinery:     four Babcock & Wilcox boilers;
                         2-shaft G.E.C. geared turbines
          Performance:   60,000 shp for 36.8 knots
          Bunkerage:     740 tons
          Range:         4,500 nautical miles at 20 knots
          Guns:          six 5 inch DP; twelve 40 mm;
                         eleven 20 mm
          Torpedoes:     ten 21 inch in two mounts

USS Frank Knox DD 742

Subject: DDR 742 Frank Knox
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1998
From: Patsy Rampolla
To: Destroyers Online

Mark,

Thank you so much for the website on the Frank Knox DDR 742. It was terrific of you to research this. The picture is great and she looks just like I remember her in the '50's. I have loads of pictures somewhere, but after 45 years or so, it's hard to remember where they might be stored today! I have bookmarked the site and will access from time to time to see if anyone from the time-frame I am looking for might post a message. If I get to Greece, I will look her up!

Thanks again for your time.

Patsy Rampolla,

From: [email protected] (BY Thompson)
Date: Sun, 7 Sep 1997 21:40:53 -0400
Subject: U.S.S. FRANK KNOX DDR-742

Richard,
Great to see a photo of the Frank Knox on the Net..You and the others have done a remarkable job , I can`t imagine how many hours you have put into it.. I wanted to ask if you could post the following info regarding the reunion association:

U.S.S. FRANK KNOX (DD/DDR-742)
Reunion Association
Bob O`Kon - President
20 Washington Square
Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901
Tel; 215 345 7571

Bob O`kon does not have access to the internet, so I have included his phone if you need to varify the above information. The Association meets each year in October, and has over 200 members . I`m new to the internet and I don`t have access to a computer..I access the internet via WebTV, so any info I send to you would have to go by E Mail or snail mail... I was stationed on the Knox from Dec.65 -May 67. Is there any specific info you can use to Post ?

Again, many thanks for your efforts

Bruce Y. Thompson

My son ran across your web site and brought it to my attention.

Ater the Knox went through fram, I'm not sure what year that was, she was a DDR (destroyer radar picket ship.) I got orders for her in the last part of 63' and she was a DDR then.

After seeing a picture of her it brought back memories of a good ship and some shipmates I haven't thought of in over thirty years.

I was on the USS Frank Knox DDR-742 when she ran aground on Pratis Reef in 64' or 65', long time ago can't remember the year. Around 02:00 Pratis Reef opened her up like a tin can of sardines, I belive that was the same year she recived 'Ship Of The Year' award.

We were heading to Hong Kong for R & R from Yankee Station on the coast of Vietnam.

After four months on the reef they finaly floated her off by filling her with foam.
She was toed to Youska, Japan, where she was repaired, which took a couple of years and the cost was in the millions.

After she was repaired she was sold to the Greek Navy for two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

Try to figure this out...

Thanks for the memories.

Harry Abbott
[email protected]