High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Capps (DD-550), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Rear Admiral Washington L. Capps (1864 1935). Capps was launched 31 May 1942 by Gulf Shipbuilding Corp., Chickasaw, Ala., sponsored by Mrs. C. G. Stokes; commissioned 23 June 1943, Lieutenant Commander B. E. S. Trippensee in command; and reported to the Atlantic Fleet. Capps cleared New York 7 September 1943 to begin the operations which would see her fighting the Axis powers on both sides of the world, sailing in convoy for Scapa Flow, Scotland. She arrived 17 September for exercises with the British Home Fleet. In a mixed task force of American and other Allied ships, led by Ranger, Capps stood out of Scapa Flow 3 October to cross the Arctic Circle for the first raid on German shipping at Norway's port of Bodø, where coal and iron ore were loaded for Germany.