Eagle Feathers #268 – Reuben James

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Reuben James was born in Boston and was a sailor and Boatswain’s mate in the United States Navy during the Barbary Wars. He fought alongside Commander Richard Somers, namesake of our city, and under the command of Somers’ best friend Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, who later commanded the Constitution.

When James was already severely wounded in both arms during battle, he vaulted himself between his prone leader and a cutlass-wielding pirate. Undaunted, he took the slash of the sword, saving his leader from certain death. Both miraculously survived and fought again.

Since 1804, a span of almost 220 years, our Navy has named seven ships honoring James. The most famous was USS Reuben James (DD-245), a convoy escort destroyer.

All Hallows Eve or All Saints Day is a day dedicated to the remembrance of the dead. On Halloween night, October 31, 1941, one hundred and fifteen American officers and sailors died on the Reuben James while escorting a 44-ship convoy with supplies to England. It was torpedoed and sunk west of the Irish coast by a German U-boat, part of a submarine wolf-pack patrolling the cold Atlantic.

The Reuben James was the first American warship destroyed during World War II. The attack took place only thirty-seven days before the shocking strike on Pearl Harbor, and its sinking fortified allied resolve to win the Battle of the Atlantic.

There are many references to the Reuben James:

• One of the top songs of the early forties was The Sinking of the Reuben James by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. So haunted by the incident, Guthrie originally wanted to list the names of every crew member in his creation, but decided against it. As time passed, many singing groups honored the ballad in their albums and Will Gear narrated it with Guthrie.
• In 1991, a World At War United States Postal Service Commemorative Stamp was released honoring The Reuben James.
• In the movie Hunt for Red October, the namesake of the Reuben James fired a warning shot across the bow of the Red October to impress the abandoning crew.
• In Star Trek, the Reuben James was a constitution-class, Federation Starship in the 23rd century.
• The 2020 film Greyhound features Tom Hanks as a destroyer captain fighting in the Battle of the Atlantic. It brings to mind the atmosphere of the cold North Atlantic that the Reuben James was in at that time. Hanks, who wrote the original screenplay, is said to be making a sequel, Greyhound 2.
• The destroyer USS Reuben James (DD 245) was torpedoed in the North Atlantic on Halloween in 1941 with a loss of 97 men. Thirteen of the lost crew members came from New England. One of them was, Coxswain John J. Ryan Jr. of Somerville, Massachusetts. He was 20 years old and the only child of Mr. and Mrs. John J. Ryan. The boy’s father served 15 years in the United States Navy and incredibly was one of eleven men who survived the July 11, 1918, torpedoing of the USS Westover off the coast of France during World War I. The family lived at 43 Mystic Avenue which is the corner of today’s Mystic Avenue and Grand Union Boulevard at Assembly Square.
• In recognition of John J. Ryan, Jr. and his father, an Alfred Street baseball park on the Somerville/Charlestown line honored them in 1945.