GPS City GuideAlbanyUSS Slater

Stop 28 of 31 · Albany audio walking tour

USS Slater

Albany · 1942 · World War II service begins

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds on USS Slater — how it came to be, who it mattered to, and what to look for while you're standing in front of it.

Afloat on the Hudson River, the USS Slater, a Cannon-class destroyer escort that served the United States Navy and later the Hellenic (Greek) Navy, waits for you. Following service during World War II she was transferred to Greece and renamed Aetos. Decommissioned in 1991, the destroyer escort was returned to the United States and now serves as a museum ship on the Hudson River in Albany, New York.

As of 2020 fewer than 12 destroyer escorts survive; Slater is the only one in her wartime configuration and the only one afloat in the United States. She was designated a National Historic Landmark on 2 March 2012. On 10 September 2019 Slater was struck by the Hudson River touring ship Dutch Apple; a mechanical problem aboard Dutch Apple was blamed for the collision.

The ship carries the name of Frank Olga Slater, born 19 December 1920 in Kennamer Cove, Alabama, one of twelve children of James Lafayette Slater, a sharecropper, and Lenora (Morgan) Slater. He grew up in Fyffe, Alabama and enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve on 10 February 1942; after basic training he was transferred to the Receiving Station at Pearl Harbor and assigned to the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco on 4 April. Notice her decks stretching out over the Hudson River.

Where it is

Coordinates
42.64294, -73.74953
Area
Albany
Era
1942 · World War II service begins
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.