The listing of Sailors is a database consisting of information from multiple sources. These sources include the Muster Rolls from the ship itself during WWII, the Personnel Diaries of the Korean Era from 1951-1960, The Roster created by the sailors themselves while the reunions were active, the In Memorium roster that was sent to me at one point, and finally information provided by descendants of sailors. I have now combined all these different sources into one database and deleted obvious duplicates. Note that I have NOT completed transcribing the Muster Rolls and have not even started transcribing the Personnel Diaries. There are undoubtedly still sailors missing from these lists and If you do not find the sailor you are looking for and know him to have served aboard the USS Caperton, please send me an email and his details and I will add his information to the database. Also If your loved one IS listed and you would like me to add a biography and a photo, please send it to me and I would be honored to add it to his listing. You can contact me at donald@caperton.info.
The Listing has a Source column which identifies where that information came from:
Muster Rolls - These are the Record of Changes aboard the ship from 1943 Until 1946. This is the main source of who was a Plank Owner. Over 500 pages
Pers Diary - Personnel Diaries, these are the ships records I have found from February 1951 to April 1960. Over 1030 pages
Roster - This is a document put together by the sailors themselves based on contact at reunions, gatherings etc.
IM Roster - The In Memorium Roster was a listing of sailors assembled by the reunion teams of sailors no longer living.
TinCan - Names taken from another Sailor website called Tin Can Sailors
WC53 - 1953 World Cruise Book. This book listed the sailors onboard during the cruise.
Family - Either a sailor or a family member has reached out to me and requested the sailor to be added to the list.
Note: I am still in the process of standardizing the database so there are still records that are duplicates or do not have the source in them yet. Additionally, as I update the sailors with either the Muster Rolls or Personnel Diary information, I will update the source info as well.
Sailors Service Number
The Sailors Service number is the key to this database. It ties the sailor to the additional information I have. In some cases that number is missing. When the WW2 Service number is missing I have added a 000-00-xxx where the xxx is just a sequential number. Otherwise the number is the key from the other database that was merged, so it will be 001 thru about 500. As I link the sailors from the old database to the new one I will update this field to their correct Service number.
Sailor PDF Report
As with the Service Number, the PDF that is generated for sailors that do not have a correct service number will also look incomplete. This PDF will generate correctly once the sailors data update is complete. In the meantime I apologize for the clunky looking PDF generated by incomplete records, particularly Korea Sailors.
Where the Data is At
I have the complete muster rolls for WWII, 1951-1953 for the Korean War, as well as 1954 thru 1960 for post Korean war activity. The Table Below shows the status of the entry of this data:
1943 - Complete! (156 pages transcribed)
1944 - 151 pages - 95 pages have been transcribed.
1945 - 152 pages to be transcribed
1946 - 96 pages to be transcribed
1951 - 100 pages to be transcribed
1952 - 115 pages to be transcribed
1953 - 115 pages to be transcribed
1954 - 119 pages to be transcribed
1955 - 103 pages to be transcribed
1956 - 100 pages to be transcribed
1957 - 124 pages to be transcribed
1958 - 86 pages to be transcribed
1959 - 138 pages to be transcribed
1960 - 60 pages to be transcribed
And Finally, There are photos of a few sailors attached to their record. Search for sailor Earl Hawkins for an example. If you would like a photo attached to a family members record I would be honored to add it, please email me the photo you would like added along with the sailors name.