EM2C Stephen Boyd was a plank owner on the Triton as indicated by his deep dive certificate hand signed by the Triton's first skipper Commander Willis A. Lent (Annapolis class of 1925). Triton was launched at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on March 25, 1940 and Commissioned August 15, 1940. The deep dive certificate (to a depth of 264 feet) is dated December 4, 1940. The location is given as Latitude 43-00 North by Longitude 70-24 West, which is just about 25 miles due East from Portsmouth, NH.
On December 7,1941, Triton, on her first patrol, was operating off Wake island and did not discover the war was on until surfacing on December 8. On December 11, Triton fired 4 torpedoes at a Japanese destroyer with no known hits. That was the first torpedo attack by the US in the war.
Triton was lost on her 6th patrol operating out of Brisbane that began February 16, 1943. Triton operated between Shortland Basin and Rabaul. Triton made several attacks, but was last heard from a few days before March 15. A sister ship reported depth charging on March 15 that was in the area that Triton was operating. Post war Japanese documents indicate a sinking of a US submarine by 3 destroyers on that date and location.
Triton was credited with sinking 16 ships, totaling 64600 tons, and damaging another 4 ships. A lot of printed research accompanies this group.
Boyd's group includes his posthumous Type 1 split brooch Purple Heart made by the US Mint, original deep dive diploma and a picture of Boyd found on the internet.
Spring 2023 this group was traded for a D-Day group.
