USS Mervine (DD-489/DMS-31), a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Rear Admiral William Mervine, who served during the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. Mervine was laid down on 3 November 1941 by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company of Kearny, New Jersey and launched on 3 May 1942, sponsored by Miss Mildred Mervine great-granddaughter of the admiral. The ship was commissioned on 17 June 1942. History Following a shakedown cruise off Cuba, Mervine reported for duty with the Gulf Sea Frontier at New Orleans, 30 August 1942. Assigned to escort work, she accompanied merchantmen as they plied the Gulf and West Indian shipping lanes, which during the preceding months had gained the dubious distinction of suffering the heaviest losses to U-boat activity in the eastern Atlantic. In October Mervine left the gulf and steamed to Norfolk where she Joined Task Force 34 (TF 34) and sailed east. Toward midnight on 7 November she arrived off Safi, Morocco, and took up her station for Operation TORCH the invasion of North Africa. During the landings on 8 November, she acted as control vessel and provided fire support for the assault forces on Red Beach, north of Safi. She remained on patrol in the area for the next five days and then returned to New York. There she resumed escort assignments and for the next seven months guarded coastal and transatlantic convoys. On 8 June 1943 Mervine departed with TF 65 for North Africa. Arriving at Mers-el-Kebir on 22 June, she joined TF 85 and on 5 July departed for Sicily and Operation HUSKY. From 10 July through 13 July, she cruised off Scoglitti and along the coast of the Camerina Plain, providing fire support for the 7th Army's assault troops. She then returned to escort work in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. In late October 1943 the troopships of convoy KMF25 left Liverpool bound for Alexandria. Mervine was the escort flagship when the convoy was attacked by German bombers off the coast of Algeria on 6 November 1943; and rescued over 600 survivors, including 100 nurses, from two ships sunk by the attack. Without facilities for so many passengers, Mervine transported the survivors to Malta within 24 hours. Pacific Theater In the spring of 1945, as Allied forces in the Pacific pushed closer to the Japanese