The Sarpedon Society

DE MUTH, Lester J.

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LESTER J. DE MUTH

Machinist’s Mate First Class · Plankowner, USS Silversides (SS-236) · Retired Chief Warrant Officer 4

Born / Died9 Jun 1915 / 15 Dec 1988
Service no.201-55-77 (enlisted); 204714 (officer)
Commissioning rateMM1c (15 Dec 1941)
Silversides tenure15 Dec 1941 – 2 Dec 1942
Patrols aboard3 (11 ships credited, 53,377 t)²
Rate on leaving SilversidesMachinist (temporary warrant, 1 Nov 1942)
Final rateCWO4, Machinist (9 Jun 1956)
Other vesselsSailfish (SS-192, plankowner), Ticonderoga (CVA-14)
Service27 May 1936 – 1 May 1959

Prewar (1915–1941)

Lester De Muth was born on 9 June 1915. In 1930 the family rented a home at 140 Cedar Street in Boston for $37 a month. His father Harry (54), a packer at a furniture company, was born in New Jersey to French-born parents. His mother Margaret (48) was Canadian. Lester (14) lived there with his siblings Henry (19), Mildred (19) and Dorothy (12).

He enlisted in Boston on 27 May 1936, aged twenty. He was a plankowner of Sailfish (SS-192), the former Squalus, received on her commissioning day, 15 May 1940, from the Navy Yard, Portsmouth. He was advanced to MM1c on 1 August 1941 and left on 21 August for the Snapper flag allowance of CSD 22, together with Donald J. Davenport, James F. Duckworth and Donald E. Finch.

On Silversides (Dec 1941 – Dec 1942)

De Muth commissioned aboard *Silversides* on 15 December 1941 as MM1c. He was appointed a temporary Machinist (warrant) on 1 November 1942, so he spent his last month aboard on the officer section of the muster. He made her first three war patrols under C.C. Burlingame and was transferred on 2 December 1942 to the Receiving Station, West Coast, for assignment to new construction.

PatrolDatesCOCredited sunkCredited damaged
130 Apr – 21 Jun 1942Burlingame5 (25,627 t)¹1 (10,100 t)
215 Jul – 8 Sep 1942Burlingame4 (15,250 t)2 (5,750 t)
3 †2 Oct – 25 Nov 1942Burlingame2 (12,500 t)²0
Total11 (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.
† Warrant officer from 1 Nov 1942.

Later War and Postwar (1943–1959)

The boat he joined for new construction is not yet identified. After his appointment his service is on the officer and warrant registers, not the enlisted musters. He became a CWO4 on 9 June 1956 and retired on 1 May 1959.

He did not return to submarines. In April 1954 he was a CMACH (chief machinist) passenger in LST-1134, leaving Hilo on 5 April and Pearl Harbor on 13 April. In March 1957 he was a CWO4 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, and in November 1957 he was on temporary duty in LST-859. On 15 July 1958 he was on the officer roster of USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) as a CWO4 in an auxiliaries material billet.

The 1950 census finds him in Vallejo, California, listed in the Armed Forces, with his wife Dorothy (35), who worked as a medical secretary at the hospital, and their one-year-old daughter Dianne, who was born in Hawaii. The 1950 Vallejo city directory has them at 331 Tinosa Avenue, a street named for a Gato-class submarine. He died on 15 December 1988; no obituary has been found.

Research Notes

  • Departure: the ROC transfer on 2 Dec 1942 is the authoritative endpoint.

  • Enlistment date: the ROC gives 27 May 1936 and BIRLS gives 31 May 1936. Resolve from the OMPF.

  • New construction: a detail formed from 2 Dec 1942 would have commissioned roughly Feb–Aug 1943. If he plankowned a second Gato as a warrant officer, an enlisted-SN match would never connect the two records. OMPF required.

  • Sailfish group: the notes list the five who came from Sailfish as SRS-009, 010, 012, 013 and 016. SRS-013 (Norris H. Duke) has no Sailfish service in his file, while the ROC section names Danko (SRS-008). verify

  • Name: DeMuth and Demuth both appear in the source documents.

  • Source notes (carried over, verbatim):

    1930 Census: Boston. Harry 54 and Margaret 48. Henry J 19, Mildred 19, Lester J 14 and Dorothy M 12. Living in a $37 rental at 140 Cedar St. Father was a packer at a furniture company. Margaret was Canadian. Father’s parents were born in France, but Harry was born in New Jersey. Lester would be in the Navy by 1936.

    1950 Census: Vallejo, CA. Lester 35 and Dorothy 35 have one child, a daughter Dianne 1. Their daughter was born in Hawaii and Dorothy was born in California. Lester is in the Armed forces and Dorothy is a medical secretary at the hospital.

    Sailfish plankowner and part of the group of 5 that came from that ship. SRS-009, 10, 12, 13 and 16.

    1950 Vallejo City directory has Lester J Demuth (Dorothy) USN 331 Tinosa Ave. He was living on a street named after the USS Tinosa, a Gato-class submarine.

    Service becomes difficult to track because of Warrant appointment, unclear where he went after being transferred for New Construction. Found him later on the Ticonderoga in 1958.

    Postwar Ships

    ShipGradeFile No.Notes
    LST-1134CMACH204714Passenger leaving Hilo 5APR and Pearl Harbor 13APR54
    Pearl Habror NSYDCWO4204714Date column: 11 Mar 1957
    LST-859CMACH204714TAD from Pearl NYSD 8 Nov 57. Lafayette County was transferred to the Republic of China 1958.
    USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)

    Sailfish: advancement and exit (primary source, 2026-09-01)

    From the Sailfish ROCs filed in Primary Source/Silversides/DAVENPORT_238-48-61/
    (they cover Davenport and DeMuth only — DeMuth appears twice, once per change):

    • Commissioning, 15 May 1940 — p.1 line 10: DeMUTH, Lester J. | 201 55 77 | MM2c | 27 May 36 | Boston, Mass. Received that day from Navy Yard, Portsmouth,
      N.H. Confirms Sailfish plankowner status against a primary source.

    • Advancement, 1 Aug 1941 — ROC month ending 31 Aug 1941, p.3 line 14:
      C.R. | 8-1-41 | MM2c to MM1c. Auth: CSSF ltr. P17-2 of 7-23-41. This is the
      documented origin of the MM1c he carries at the Silversides commissioning
      four months later, and it closes the MM2c→MM1c step that was previously only
      inferable from the two endpoints.

    • Exit, 21 Aug 1941 — same ROC, p.3 line 15: Trans. | 8-21-41 | To USS SNAPPER (CSD22 Flag Allow.) for duty. Same date and destination as Davenport (line
      13), and the research notes put Danko, Duckworth and Finch on that date too. The
      Sailfish five reached the Silversides commissioning crew via the CSD 22 flag
      allowance      , not directly — the documentary thread flagged in
      scorpion-orphan-question.

    Enlistment date discrepancy

    The ROC gives his enlistment as 27 May 1936, Boston; BIRLS_Enlist is
    1936-05-31. Four days apart. Both are on the note; neither has been promoted
    over the other. Worth resolving from the OMPF when it arrives.

    Silversides departure and the warrant appointment

    • Silversides ROC: transferred 2 Dec 1942 to RS West Coast for assignment
      to new construction      . This is the authoritative departure endpoint (not a
      last-muster-appearance inference).
    • Register of Chief Machinists and Machinists: carries DeMuth as a Machinist
      (warrant) with date of temporary rank 1 Nov 1942. The number printed beside
      the name in that register is a lineal / seniority (“signal”) number, not a
      service number.
    • What this register is: a branch-specific warrant-officer lineal list — the
      same family of publication as the annual Register of Commissioned and Warrant
      Officers of the U.S. Navy      , filtered to the warrant Machinist grade. Warrant
      officers are officers, so DeMuth’s records from 1 Nov 1942 forward are in the
      officer/warrant registers, not the WWII enlisted muster roll collection —
      which is why the enlisted-muster search for his post-Silversides service comes up
      empty (same structural wall as Ballman → Dorado).
    • Career: enlisted 1936 (SN 201-55-77) → temporary Machinist (warrant)
      1 Nov 1942 → officer service number 204714 (officer series — no digit-overlap
      with the enlisted SN) → CWO4 9 Jun 1956 → retired 1 May 1959 (BIRLS). A full
      mustang / warrant career.
    • He left Silversides already holding the warrant (appointed 1 Nov 1942,
      detached 2 Dec 1942), so his final ~month aboard he would have been on the
      officer section of the muster.
    • Not a submariner after the war. By the mid-1950s his billets are surface.
      USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14): on the ship’s officer roster of 15 Jul 1958 as
      CWO4, billet listed as “AUXILIARIEMATL” — Engineering Department,
      Auxiliaries (A) Division / material billet (auxiliaries = pumps, hydraulics,
      refrigeration, A/C, steering and catapult/arresting-gear machinery, water systems;
      a textbook warrant-Machinist job). Other officers on the same roster carry billets
      like “Flight Deck” (V-1), “Electrical” (E Div.), “Photo”, “Legal”, “AVAORD”
      (aviation ordnance) — i.e. the roster is broken out by department/division billet,
      numbered columns for name / billet / rank / file number.
      Submarine service appears bounded by Sailfish → Silversides → the 1942-43
      new-construction detail; if he plankowned that boat it may be the only one he did
      as a warrant officer, or he was detached from the detail before commissioning
      (which would explain his total absence from every Gato commissioning roster).

    New construction — boat unknown

    Departed for new construction 2 Dec 1942; a pre-comm detail formed from that date
    would commission roughly Feb–Aug 1943. West Coast yards (esp. Mare Island) were
    still commissioning late Gato-class boats in that window as well as early Balao;
    “new construction, West Coast, early 1943” does not by itself tell us the class.
    If DeMuth plankowned a second Gato boat as a warrant Machinist, an SN-keyed
    match to Claims/ (built on enlisted SNs) would never connect the two records —
    he would look like two different men. OMPF required to establish the
    new-construction boat and any plankowner status. Log with subjects: [SRS-010] so
    Panel G tracks the clock. Same request category as Ballman.

    Davenport disambiguation (recurring trap)

    The Silversides musters in this period are signed by Roy Milton Davenport,
    LCDR — Silversides’s executive officer under Burlingame, later CO of Haddock and Trepang, five Navy Crosses (“Dean of the Silent Service”).
    A commissioned officer, not an enlisted plankowner. He is a different man from Donald John
    Davenport    , enlisted plankowner of Dorado (SS-248) = GAT-033. The
    Silversides Museum’s photo captions have conflated the two. Whenever “Davenport”
    appears on a Silversides document, check which one.

Sources: 1930 and 1950 census; Sailfish and Silversides ROCs; Register of Chief Machinists and Machinists; BIRLS; 1950 Vallejo city directory; Ticonderoga officer roster, 15 Jul 1958.

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