DONALD JOHN DAVENPORT
Chief Machinist’s Mate (Acting Appointment) · Plankowner, USS Silversides (SS-236) · Lost with USS Dorado (SS-248), 12 Oct 1943
| Born / Died | 17 May 1916, Troy, NY / 12 Oct 1943, lost with Dorado |
| Service no. | 238-48-61 |
| Commissioning rate | MM2c (15 Dec 1941) |
| Silversides tenure | 15 Dec 1941 – 11 Dec 1942 |
| Patrols aboard | 3 (11 ships credited, 53,377 t)² |
| Rate on leaving Silversides | MoMM1c |
| Final rate | CMoMM(AA) |
| Other vessels | Sailfish (SS-192, plankowner), Snapper flag allowance, Dorado (SS-248, plankowner) |
| Service | Enlisted 18 Jul 1938 (Denver); reenlisted 29 Apr 1942 (Pearl Harbor) |
Prewar (1916–1941)
Donald Davenport was born in Troy, New York, on 17 May 1916, the eldest of eight children. In 1930 the family owned a $2,125 home with a radio on Seventh Avenue in Watervliet, across the Hudson from Troy. His father Edwin (38), a Vermont-born former Marine, was a policeman on the guard force of the Watervliet Arsenal, where he served for twenty-seven years. Donald attended St. Bridget’s School in Watervliet and Catholic Central High School, and worked at the Arsenal before he went to sea. His brother Edwin James Davenport also joined the Navy, in 1941, and later served as a Foreign Service officer.
Davenport enlisted on 18 July 1938 in Denver, Colorado. He was a Fireman First Class when USS Sailfish (SS-192), the salvaged Squalus, commissioned on 15 May 1940, and he came aboard that day as a plankowner. On 21 August 1941 he left for the Snapper flag allowance of CSD 22, the same transfer that took Lester J. De Muth and Donald E. Finch. The Sailfish commissioning roll also lists James F. Duckworth and Norris H. Duke.
On Silversides (Dec 1941 – Dec 1942)
Davenport commissioned aboard *Silversides* on 15 December 1941 as MM2c and made her first three war patrols under C.C. Burlingame, rising to MoMM1c. He left on 11 December 1942, six days before the fourth patrol sailed, for ComSubDiv 102 “for duty.”
He should not be confused with Roy Milton Davenport, the boat’s executive officer and later commanding officer of Haddock and Trepang, whose signature is on many of the Silversides reports of changes. The two are different men, and the museum’s photo captions have mixed them up.
| Patrol | Dates | CO | Credited sunk | Credited damaged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 Apr – 21 Jun 1942 | Burlingame | 5 (25,627 t)¹ | 1 (10,100 t) |
| 2 | 15 Jul – 8 Sep 1942 | Burlingame | 4 (15,250 t) | 2 (5,750 t) |
| 3 | 2 Oct – 25 Nov 1942 | Burlingame | 2 (12,500 t)² | 0 |
| Total | 11 (53,377 t) | 3 (15,850 t) |
¹ Tonnage as credited in endorsements. Patrol 1 includes a submarine credit that was likely a log or other debris.
² Patrol 3 figures come from the ship’s history, not a patrol report. The total therefore mixes bases.
Later War (1943)
His assignment between December 1942 and the commissioning of USS Dorado (SS-248) on 28 August 1943 is undocumented. The Dorado commissioning roll records him arriving from the Supervisor of Shipbuilding at Groton, Connecticut, as a CMoMM(AA). He was one of two chief motor machinist’s mates received from that billet, along with a shipmate named Eberl.
Death (12 October 1943)
Davenport was lost with Dorado on 12 October 1943, six weeks after she commissioned. He was twenty-seven. The California casualty register lists his wife, Rosaleen, of San Francisco, while the Troy Record of 23 October reported him missing to his parents. His father died on 30 March 1945 and is buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery. Fellow Dorado plankowner August F. Ballman was lost in the same sinking.
Research Notes
-
Newspaper claims (
acknowledged_speculation): the Troy Record credits him with Midway, Coral Sea and Guadalcanal, ten ships sunk including a 13,000-ton transport, and two looks at Japan through a periscope, once at Kobe harbor. Silversides reached Pearl Harbor on 4 Apr 1942, and her first patrol only spanned those battles. The Kobe detail is specific enough to chase. The paper also says he served on submarines “since 1935,” which sits poorly against an enlistment of record in 1938. -
Gap, Dec 1942 – Aug 1943: detached “for duty,” not new construction, unlike De Muth nine days earlier (2 Dec 1942). The Troy Record says “several other undersea boats,” so another boat is possible.
-
Enlistment: 18 Jul 1938 (two Sailfish ROCs) vs 29 Apr 1942 (Sep 1942 muster, 16 Dec 1942 ROC, Dorado commissioning ROC), which reads as a reenlistment.
-
Sailfish group: the 15 May 1940 commissioning ROC (page 1) lists Davenport, De Muth, Duckworth, Duke and Finch. This documents the “five” in the De Muth and Duckworth notes.
n_commissioningsis 2 because Sailfish (SS-192) is Sargo class. -
Continuity table: the 1942-12 GAP flag was a false positive from the old generator, which counted the “Men Who Left Between Quarters” prose as presence. His last roster appearance is 30 Sep 1942.
-
Open: 1940 census, draft card, BIRLS,
mia_date,presumed_dead, marriage date, Dorado war-patrol sourcing. -
Source notes (carried over, verbatim):
DAVENPORT, Donald J. — SN 238-48-61 (GAT-033 / SRS-009)
Enlisted. Plankowner of Sailfish (SS-192) → Silversides (SS-236) (15 Dec
1941, MM2c) → Dorado (SS-248) (28 Aug 1943, CMoMM(AA)). Lost with Dorado
12 Oct 1943.Not Roy Milton Davenport
Donald J. Davenport (this man, SN 238-48-61, enlisted, GAT-033 / SRS-009) is
a different person from Roy Milton Davenport, LCDR — Silversides’s
executive officer under Burlingame, later CO of Haddock and Trepang, five
Navy Crosses. Roy M. Davenport is the signature on many Silversides ROCs of
this period; Donald J. Davenport is a name in the roster. Both can appear on
the same document. The USS Silversides Museum’s photo captions have conflated the
two. SeeUSS Silversides Cohort/SRS-010.mdResearch Notes.Research Status
State:
=this.profile_state· Sources:=this.primary_source_folder
Both commissioning claims verified against ROCs 2026-09-01. Service endpoints
and the loss are settled; the prewar census/family picture is in progress and
the Dorado administrative loss dates (mia_date,presumed_dead) are not
yet pulled.
Prewar
Born:
=this.dob— Troy, NY
1930 Census: Watervliet, Ward 4, ED 1-159 sheet 13B
1940 Census: not yet pulled
Draft Registration: not yet pulled
Education: St. Bridget’s School, Watervliet; Catholic Central High School.
Employment pre-service: Watervliet Arsenal — the same works his father guarded.Household, 1930 (Watervliet, Ward 4, ED 1-159 sheet 13B, enumerated 14 Apr 1930;
owned home valued $2,125, radio set):Name Relation Age Born Notes Edwin J. Davenport Head 38 Vermont Policeman, U.S. Arsenal Catherine (Phillips) Davenport Wife 39 New York — Donald Son 13 New York — Virginia Daughter 11½ New York — Harvey Son 9 New York — Edwin Jr. Son 6 New York — Elizabeth Daughter 4½ New York — William Son 2½ New York — Two more brothers, Paul and Eugene, were born after the 1930 enumeration —
eight children in all. By October 1943 five brothers survived him, four of them in
uniform: Harvey (cadet midshipman, Naval Reserve, later Ensign in the merchant
marine), Edwin Jr. (radio technician, Navy), William, Paul and Eugene, with sisters
Virginia and Elizabeth.His father Sergt. Edwin J. Davenport — son of Frank Davenport of Bennington,
Vermont — was a former Marine who served one enlistment before the First World War,
and spent 27 years on the Watervliet Arsenal guard force. He died at Leonard
Hospital, Troy, on 30 March 1945, eighteen months after Donald was reported
missing, and is buried from St. Augustine’s church in St. Mary’s cemetery.
Service
Documented by arrival/departure per Report-of-Changes endpoints; intervening
quarterly musters are not transcribed except for the Silversides commissioning
cohort.Ship Arrived Rate on arrival Departed Rate on departure Source Sailfish (SS-192) 1940-05-15 (commissioning) — rec. from Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N.H. F1c 1941-08-21 → USS Snapper (CSD 22 Flag Allow.) for duty MM2c Sailfish ROC submitted upon commissioning, 15 May 1940, p.1 line 9; Sailfish ROC month ending 31 Aug 1941, p.3 line 13 USS Snapper (CSD 22 Flag Allowance) 1941-08-21 MM2c by 1941-12-15 MM2c Sailfish exit ROC (destination); arrival not yet pulled Silversides (SS-236) 1941-12-15 (commissioning) MM2c 1942-12-11 → ComSubDiv 102 for duty MoMM1c Silversides ROC, day ending 16 Dec 1942, p.21 line 4 unknown — see below 1942-12 MoMM1c — — — Supervisor of Shipbuilding, USN, Groton, Conn. by 1943-08 — 1943-08-28 CMoMM(AA) Dorado commissioning ROC “FROM” column Dorado (SS-248) 1943-08-28 (commissioning) CMoMM(AA) lost 1943-10-12 CMoMM(AA) Claims/238-48-61 Dorado Rating progression: F1c (1940) → MM2c (by Aug 1941) → MoMM1c (1942) → CMoMM(AA) (1943).
Enlistments. Both Sailfish ROCs give 18 July 1938, Denver, Colorado. By the
Sep 1942 Silversides muster it is 29 April 1942, Pearl Harbor, T.H. — so he
reenlisted in the spring of 1942. The 1942 date now appears on three independent
documents (Sep 1942 muster, 16 Dec 1942 ROC, Dorado commissioning ROC) and the 1938
date on two. The Troy Record’s claim that he had been on submarine duty “since 1935”
sits awkwardly against a 1938 enlistment of record and should not be taken at face
value without an earlier document.He was a plankowner of three boats, not two
The 15 May 1940 Sailfish ROC is captioned “submitted upon commissioning” and
Davenport is received that day from Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N.H. That makes him a
Sailfish plankowner as well.n_commissionings: 2counts Gato-class boats
only — Sailfish (SS-192) is Sargo-class and is recorded viaother_boatsand an
out-of-class stub with no claim note, per the
out-of-class convention. The count is correct; the man is a triple plankowner.Service gap, Dec 1942 – Aug 1943
The exit ROC detaches him to ComSubDiv 102 for duty on 11 Dec 1942 — not to
new construction. But the Dorado commissioning ROC nine months later records him
arriving from Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Groton. The intervening assignment is
undocumented, and the Troy Record says he served on “several other undersea
boats,” so another boat between Silversides and Dorado is possible. This is the
same shape as the Duckworth ComSubDiv 82 gap.Note the contrast on the same page: DE MUTH (line 5) was detached nine days
earlier, 2 Dec 1942, explicitly “RS West Coast for assignment to New Construction.”
Davenport’s wording is different, which is why it cannot be read as the same move.War Patrols & Battles
Aboard Silversides for the first three war patrols. He detached 11 Dec 1942, six
days before the fourth patrol departed (17 Dec 1942), so the fourth and later patrols
are outside his service.Newspaper claims — do not promote to documented_fact
The Troy Record (23 Oct 1943) credits him with taking part in “the battles of
Midway and Coral Sea” and being “present at the landing on Guadalcanal,”
with his boat sinking ten Japanese ships including a 13,000-ton troop
transport, and says he “twice looked at the shores of Japan through a periscope,”
once from Kobe Harbor.These are wartime hometown-press claims and at least one does not survive the
patrol record. Silversides commissioned 15 Dec 1941 and did not reach Pearl
Harbor until 4 Apr 1942; her first patrol ran 30 Apr – 21 Jun 1942, which spans
Coral Sea (4–8 May) and Midway (4–7 Jun) but is not participation in either
battle. Treat the whole passage asacknowledged_speculationpending the patrol
reports. The periscope-at-Kobe detail is worth chasing — it is specific enough to
be real, and would belong to a patrol he was aboard for.Dorado
No
War Patrols/Dorado War Patrols.mdnote exists. Dorado was lost 12 Oct 1943,
about six weeks after commissioning, and the boat note records the commissioning
muster as the only documentation available — so whether a war-patrol section applies
at all needs a sourcing decision before anything is written.Postwar
Not applicable — lost with Dorado 12 Oct 1943, aged 27.
Date fields for a man lost with his boat
dod= 1943-10-12, the date of loss of Dorado — the real event.
mia_dateandpresumed_deadhold the two later administrative status
changes and are still to be pulled. BIRLS dates for war-patrol losses are
those administrative dates, not the death; cross-check against the
Dorado terminal casualty muster.
Thematic Threads - LLM Draft
Draft only, not sourced fact.
- The Sailfish five, and the route they took. Davenport, DeMuth, Duckworth, Duke
and Finch are all on page 1 of the Sailfish commissioning ROC (15 May 1940,
lines 9, 10, 12, 13, 14) — the “all plankowners of Sailfish” note is now documented,
not inferred. The 31 Aug 1941 ROC then shows Davenport and DeMuth both transferred
21 Aug 1941 to USS Snapper (CSD 22 Flag Allowance) for duty — and the research
notes put Danko, Duckworth and Finch on that same date. So the path from Sailfish
to the Silversides commissioning crew ran through the CSD 22 flag allowance,
not directly. That is the documentary thread flagged in scorpion-orphan-question
as the real connection lead, appearing here in a primary source. - Sailfish is the salvaged Squalus. The Troy Record makes the point explicitly.
These men commissioned a boat that had been on the bottom with 26 dead in 1939. - New construction as a career path. He left Silversides 11 Dec 1942 for
Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Groton, and came out a chief. Two of the Dorado
commissioning crew came from that same billet — Davenport and EBERL, both
CMoMM(AA), consecutive lines on the ROC. - A four-son service family, all four in different branches or ratings; the
father died five months before the war ended, eighteen months after Donald.
Regional Context - LLM Draft
Draft only, not sourced fact.
Troy and Watervliet sit opposite each other on the Hudson north of Albany. The
Watervliet Arsenal — the Army’s cannon factory since 1813, and still the
oldest continuously operating arsenal in the country — was the town’s defining
employer, and his father guarded it for 27 years. A boy who grew up beside a
government ordnance works and went to sea as a machinist’s mate is a legible
path, not a coincidence. By enlistment he had moved to San Francisco (from_city),
so the Troy→California move happened before the war and is worth pinning down.
Sources
# Type Description Repository / Access Date Accessed 1 Commissioning ROC USS Silversides (SS-236) Report of Changes, 15 Dec 1941 — roster line, MM2c NARA RG 24 (NAID 594996) via Ancestry 2026-09-01 2 Commissioning ROC USS Dorado (SS-248) Report of Changes, 28 Aug 1943 — line 16, CMoMM(AA), from Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Groton NARA RG 24 (NAID 594996) via Ancestry 2026-09-01 3 Quarterly muster USS Silversides QM 30 Sep 1942 — line 12, MoMM1c, enlistment 29 Apr 42 Pearl Harbor Silversides QM 30SEP42 2026-09-01 4 Casualty roll USS Dorado terminal muster / OEP casualty list Gato-class/Terminal Musters/OEP Dorado Casualty List 2026-09-01 5 Census 1930 federal census, Watervliet, Albany Co., NY — ED 1-159, sheet 13B, SD 17, enum. 14 Apr 1930 Primary Source/…/1930.jpg2026-09-01 6 Commissioning ROC USS Sailfish (SS-192) Report of Changes submitted upon commissioning, 15 May 1940, p.1 line 9 — F1c, rec. from Navy Yard Portsmouth N.H.; enlisted 18 Jul 1938 Denver, Colo. Primary Source/…/SailfishComm.jpg2026-09-01 7 Departure ROC USS Sailfish Report of Changes, month ending 31 Aug 1941 (corrected copy, ref BuNav Nav-642-2-S-P, 4 Nov 1941), p.3 line 13 — MM2c, Trans 21 Aug 1941 to USS Snapper (CSD 22 Flag Allow.) Primary Source/…/Sailfishexit.jpg2026-09-01 8 Departure ROC USS Silversides Report of Changes, day ending 16 Dec 1942, p.21 line 4 — Trans 12/11/42, ComSubDiv 102 for duty Primary Source/…/Silversidesexit.jpg2026-09-01 9 Casualty register State Summary of War Casualties (California), DEAD, p.22 — CMoMM, USN; wife Mrs. Rosaleen Davenport, 5415 Mission St., San Francisco Primary Source/…/Dead.jpg2026-09-01 10 Newspaper ”Trojan, Submarine Crew Member, Reported Missing,” The Troy Record, 23 Oct 1943, p.10 — with portrait Primary Source/…/The_Troy_Record_1943_10_23_Page_10.jpg2026-09-01 11 Newspaper ”Edwin J. Davenport Funeral Rites Held,” Bennington Evening Banner, 2 Apr 1945 — father’s obituary Primary Source/…/The_Bennington_Evening_Banner_1945_04_02_1.jpg2026-09-01
Research Notes
Continuity table false positive (1943-03).
Reference/silversides-continuity.md
marks SRS-009 present in the 1943-03 quarter and therefore flags 1942-12 as a GAP.
That is wrong on both counts. His only appearance inSilversides QM 31MAR43is in the
prose “Men Who Left Between Quarters” table (“Departed (plankowner)”), not the
roster. His last roster appearance is 30 Sep 1942 (line 12, MoMM1c), consistent with the
11 Dec 1942 departure — the 1942-12 absence is a real departure, not a transcription gap.
This is the exact failure mode noted in the profile methodology and in
README-gato-nodes.mdcaveat #6.This was a generator bug, now fixed (2026-09-01).
_migration/s4c_continuity.py
sns_in()regexed the entire muster note rather than the roster, so the crew-change
prose sections scored as presence. The script now reads only the### Page Nroster
subsections. Davenport’s row isxat commission / 1942-03 / 1942-06 / 1942-09 and
blank thereafter — no gap — which matches the 11 Dec 1942 departure exactly.Six men lost spurious
1942-12gap flags in the re-run (Davenport, DE MUTH, GRAHAM
R.H., LEWIS, NEWTON, SNIDER — all six sat in the 31MAR43 “Men Who Left Between
Quarters” table). ROBINSON’s1942-12and TEEM’s1942-03survived and are real
candidates. Two new flags surfaced once the false presence was removed: CZERWINSKI
1943-09and GUTZMER1943-03— both worth a look, since both men appear on a roster
after a quarter they are absent from.1930 Census: 1149 Seventh Ave, Watervliet, NY. Edwin Davenport (38) and Katherine (39). Donald (13), Virginia (11), Harvey (9), Edwin Jr (6), Elizabeth (4) and William (2 yrs 5mo). They live in an owned home valued at $2175 with a radio. Edwin is a policeman at the Watervliet Arsenal.
Brother Edwin James Davenport was in the Navy. 601-10-66, confirmed by Korean DC. Born 19 Apr 1923 in Watervliet to Edwin Davenport Sr, joined the Navy at 19 in 1941 where he served on a combat ship in the pacific. From 1948 - 1951 he served in the US Embassy in China. Retired from the Navy in 1964 and joined the State Department as a Foreign Service officer. Served at the American Embassies in Dublin, Dar es Salaam, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, and Bridgetown Barbados. source
- The Sailfish five, and the route they took. Davenport, DeMuth, Duckworth, Duke
Sources: 1930 census; Sailfish, Silversides and Dorado ROCs; Silversides quarterly muster, 30 Sep 1942; California casualty register; The Troy Record, 23 Oct 1943; Bennington Evening Banner, 2 Apr 1945; Find a Grave.