The third USS Farragut (DD-348), named for Admiral David Glasgow Farragut USN (1801-1870), was the lead ship of her class of destroyers in the United States Navy.

Farragut was laid down by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation at Quincy in Massachusetts on 20 September 1932, launched on 15 March 1934 by Mrs. James Roosevelt, daughter-in-law of the President and commissioned on 18 June 1934, Commander Elliott Buckmaster , USN in command.

Since it had been almost fourteen years since a new destroyer was commissioned in the United States Navy, Farragut devoted much of her early service to development operations, cruising out of her home port Norfolk, Virginia to the Caribbean and along the east coast. On 26 March 1935, she embarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Jacksonville, Florida, and carried him next day to a rendezvous with a private yacht. She escorted the President's yacht on a cruise in the Bahamas; on 7 April, he embarked on her for passage to Jacksonville, where he left the ship 8 April.

Farragut sailed for San Diego, California, arriving 19 April 1935 to join Destroyer Squadron 20 as flagship. Fleet maneuvers on the west coast, training operations in the Hawaiians, and cruises in the summer months to train men of the Naval Reserve in Alaskan waters continued until 3 January 1939, when Farragut sailed for fleet maneuvers in the Caribbean, returning to San Diego 12 April. From 2 October, she was based at Pearl Harbor. She made two voyages to the west coast to screen carriers to Pearl Harbor, and from 1 August 1941, was almost constantly at sea for exercises with carrier task forces.

Farragut was berthed in a nest of destroyers in East Loch, Pearl Harbor, at the time of the Japanese attack on 7 December 1941. Her engineering officer, senior on board at the time, got her underway, and as she sailed down the channel, she kept up a steady fire. Through March 1942, Farragut operated in Hawaiian waters, and from Oahu to San Francisco, California, on antisubmarine patrols and escort duty.

On 15 April 1942, Farragut sortied from Pearl Harbor with the Lexington (CV-2) task force, bound for the Coral Sea and a rendezvous with the Yorktown (CV-5) task force. Together these forces engaged Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea from 4 to 8 May 1942. For the first 2 days of the battle, Farragut sailed with the Attack Force, while the aircraft carriers in another group launched air strikes on Tulagi. On 6 June, all ships were united as TF 17, and sailed to the northwestward to make contact with the Japanese Port Moresby Invasion Group. Next day, Farragut was detached in the Support Group assigned to continue the search for the Japanese invasion forces. Farragut's group came under heavy air attack that afternoon, but downed at least five aircraft, and receiving no damage to any ship.