USS Hughes (DD-410) was a World War II-era in the service of the United States Navy. Namesake Edward Merritt Hughes was born on 28 January 1850 in Lockbourne, Ohio, the son of merchant Abram A. Hughes. He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in 1866 and graduated on 7 June 1870. He passed through the grades of Ensign, Master, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, and, on 3 March 1901, was commissioned Commander. After service on a number of ships and stations ashore, he reached the high point in his career during the Spanish–American War. He was Executive Officer of during the Battle of Manila Bay. Immediately after the action, he commanded a small boat which boarded and set fire to five Spanish ships lying in Cavite Harbor, despite reports that fuses had been set to their magazines and in the face of a large and excited armed force on shore nearby. He was advanced five numbers in rank for eminent and conspicuous conduct on this occasion. His commanding officer later wrote, "The action of Lieutenant Hughes in setting fire to the enemy's sunken ships in the face of a well armed superior, but demoralized force, was the one act of conspicuous gallantry which the battle that day afforded." Commander Hughes died in the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokohama, Japan on 28 September 1903. Construction and commissioning Hughes was laid down on 15 September 1937 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; launched on 17 June 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Edward M. Hughes, widow of Commander Hughes; and commissioned at Boston Navy Yard, on 21 September 1939, Lieutenant Commander Donald J. Ramsey in command. Service history Interwar period Following shakedown in the Gulf of Mexico, Hughes joined the Atlantic Fleet. From July 1940 to December 1941, Hughes served in the Atlantic, first on patrol off Martinique to watch Vichy French Forces there and then on Neutrality patrol off Iceland. During this time, she became the first American destroyer to escort a British convoy all the way to England. World War II Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, warships were urgently needed in the Pacific and Hughes sailed from Norfolk, Virginia on 18 December 1941, arriving San Diego, California in company with , on 30 December. She departed San Diego on 12 January 1942 as an escort for ships bringing reinforcements to Samoa. Hughes then sailed from Samoa as part of a carrier