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Hull Number: DD-10

Launch Date: 06/14/1902

Commissioned Date: 07/19/1902

Decommissioned Date: 07/29/1919

Call Sign: NOP


Class: BAINBRIDGE (1902)

BAINBRIDGE (1902) Class

Data for USS Bainbridge (DD-1) as of 1912


Length Overall: 250' 0"

Beam: 23' 8"

Draft: 6' 6"

Standard Displacement: 420 tons

Full Load Displacement: 592 tons

Fuel capacity: 181 tons/coal

Armament:

Two  3″/50 caliber rapid fire guns
Five  6 pounders
Two  18″ torpedo tubes

 

Complement:

3 Officers
72 Enlisted

Propulsion:

4 Boilers
2 Vertical expansion engines: 8,000 horsepower

Highest speed on trials: 28.4 knots

Namesake: JOHN PAUL JONES

JOHN PAUL JONES

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, April 2020

John Paul was born at Arbigland, Kirkbean, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, 6 July 1747. Apprenticed to a merchant at age 13, the lad went to sea in brig Friendship to learn the art of seamanship. At 21, he received his first command, brig John. After several successful years as a merchant skipper in the West Indies trade, John Paul immigrated to the Continental British colonies and there added Jones to his name. In the summer of 1775, the Continental Congress commissioned him Lieutenant in the first American Navy. As First Lieutenant of Alfred, John Paul Jones was the first man to hoist the Grand Union flag on a continental warship, 3 December 1775. During the early part of 1776, he participated in the attack on New Providence, Nassau. Later that year, as Captain of Providence and Alfred, he made daring cruises between Bermuda and Nova Scotia, inflicting much damage on British shipping.

On 1 November 1777, he sailed for France in Ranger, carrying dispatches for the American commissioner and word of Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga. Admiral La Motte Piquet returned Jones’ salute at Quiberon Bay, France, 14 February 1778, the first time the new “stars and stripes” were recognized by a foreign power. Ranger subsequently raided the British coast and, in a notable engagement off Belfast, Ireland captured British sloop-of-war Drake.

Early in 1779, the French King gave Jones the ancient East Indiaman Duc de Duras, which he refitted and renamed Bon Homme Richard, as a compliment to Benjamin Franklin. Commanding four other ships and two French privateers, he sailed 14 August 1779 to raid English shipping.

On 23 September 1779, his ship accompanied by Pallas engaged British Serapis and Countess of Scarborough off Famborough Head, Yorkshire. During this bloody and desperate battle, Captain Pearson of the Serapis, seeing the shambles on the deck of the Bon Homme Richard, asked if the American ship had surrendered. Jones’s immortal reply “I have not yet begun to fight,” served as a rallying cry to the crew of the badly-shattered Richard; and they went on to capture Serapis. Jones was forced to transfer to Serapis when his gallant Bon Homme Richard sank the next day. For this extraordinary victory, not only did Congress pass a resolution thanking him, Louis XVI also presented him with a sword.

After the war, Commodore Jones was active in Paris negotiating prize money claims. In 1788, he entered the service of Empress Catherine of Russia with the rank of Rear Admiral, but retained his American citizenship. Although he successfully commanded the Black Sea Squadron, court intrigues forced Jones to leave Russia.

He returned to Paris in 1790 where he died 18 July 1792. The site of his burial was long forgotten; but American Ambassador Horace Porter began a systematic search for it in 1899. His body was eventually discovered, and in 1905, a special squadron of U.S. Navy ships brought it to America to be interred at the Chapel of the Navy Academy. Brilliant seaman, leader, and man of great courage, John Paul Jones was one of the true founders of the Navy’s great traditions.


Disposition:

Stricken 9/15/1919. Sold for scrap 1/3/1920


USS PAUL JONES DD-10 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2015

Paul Jones (DD-10), the second ship so named, was laid down 20 April 1899 by the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, Calif.; launched 14 June 1902; sponsored by Mrs. Elizabeth Goldsborough Adams; and commissioned 19 July 1902, Lt. R. F. Gross in command.

Originally built as a torpedo boat destroyer, Paul Jones served in the Pacific Fleet, homeported at San Francisco. A unit of the Pacific Torpedo Fleet, she was at San Francisco at the beginning of World War I.

Paul Jones sailed 23 April 1917 for Norfolk, Va. via San Diego, Acapulco, the Canal Zone, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arriving 3 August. On 4 August she took station off the York River on patrol assignment until joining: Duncan (No. 46), Henley (No. 39), Truxton (No. 14), Stewart (No. 13), Preble (No. 12), Hull (No. 7), Macdonough (No. 9), and Hopkins (No. 6) as escorts for Battleship Force Atlantic, on 13 August, for passage to Bermuda and New York.

Paul Jones departed the Brooklyn Navy Yard 24 August and reported to Newport where she began a series of convoy patrols up and down the coast and returning to Newport 24 September. She then commenced training operations, in conjunction with other duties, off Norfolk, Lynnhaven Roads, and Chesapeake Bay, prior to reporting to Philadlephia 20 December.

On 15 January 1918, in company with Stewart, Hopkins and Worden (No. 16), Paul Jones sailed for the Azores by way of Bermuda. After departing Bermuda, she had to request permission to turn back due to a serious leak in her port after bunker. From 23-26 January Paul Jones’ crew struggled magnificently against great odds and succeeded in saving the ship from sinking. Wallowing in stormy seas with her after fire room flooded, barely able to maintain headway, losing all drinking and feed water and steaming under two boilers with salt feed, manning bucket brigades for lack of operable pumps, and receiving no answers to her distress signals, she finally sighted a light off David’s Head, Bermuda, signalled the fort for assistance and dropped her anchor.

Paul Jones had an exhausted but very happy crew. She remained at Bermuda until 22 February for repairs and then sailed for Philadelphia escorted by Mars (AC-6) arriving 25 February. Following permanent repair at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Paul Jones reported to Fortress Monroe, Va. 18 April, and performed various duties in and around Chesapeake Bay until 6 August.

The highlight of Paul Jones’ career came on 2 July when Henderson (AP-1) was afire in the Atlantic north of Bermuda and east of Virginia. Paul Jones made four trips from the burning ship to Von Steuben (ID. No. 3017) saving 1,250 Marines and officers together with over 50 tons of luggage, The next day she accompanied Henderson to Delaware Breakwater.

While in convoy 7 August at sea, Paul Jones with several other ships in her group mistook the U.S. submarine O-6 (SS-67) for an enemy submarine and fired upon her. The submarine was struck seven times in the conning tower before the mistake was apparent. Paul Jones escorted the damaged submarine to Delaware Bay, and arrived at the breakwater the following day.

Paul Jones reported at Hampton Roads 9 August and remained in and around Chesapeake Bay conducting mine patrols, convoy duties and other services until slated for inactivation 31 January 1919. She decommissioned 29 July 1919; was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 15 September 1919; and was sold 3 January 1920 to Joseph G. Hitner, Philadelphia, Pa., who subsequently scrapped her.