USS Laffey (DD-724)

Moored along the pier at Patriots Point, USS Laffey (DD-724) presents the compact, purposeful lines of an Allen M. Sumner–class destroyer built late in the Second World War. Laid down in 1943 and commissioned in February 1944, Laffey embodies the transition to higher–firepower, radar-equipped fleet escorts that had to function simultaneously as anti-aircraft screen, shore bombardment platform, and anti-submarine hunter. Her wartime record, from the Normandy landings at Utah Beach to the Pacific campaigns, culminated off Okinawa, where an intense series of bomb and kamikaze attacks earned her the sobriquet “The Ship That Would Not Die.” Preserved today as a National Historic Landmark, the vessel offers a rare opportunity to study original arrangements of dual-purpose gun mounts, post–1943 combat information spaces, and the dense concentration of weaponry characteristic of late-war destroyers. Situated on the Charleston harbor alongside larger and more prominent warships, Laffey illustrates how much of the fleet’s hard daily work fell to relatively small hulls, and how survival often depended on design margins, crew discipline, and the unforgiving arithmetic of damage control.