DD-109 - Tin Can Sailors

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Hull Number: DD-109

Launch Date: 07/04/1918

Commissioned Date: 04/18/1919

Decommissioned Date: 11/14/1945

Call Sign: NIFB

Class: LITTLE

LITTLE Class

Data for USS Little (DD-79) as of 1921

Length Overall: 314’ 4 1/2"

Beam: 31' 8"

Draft: 9’ 2"

Standard Displacement: 1,191 tons

Full Load Displacement: 1,284 tons

Armament:

Four 4″/50 caliber guns
One 3″/23 caliber anti-aircraft gun
Four 21″ triple torpedo tubes

Complement:

8 Officers
8 Chief Petty Officers
106 Enlisted

Propulsion:

4 Boilers
2 Curtis Geared Turbines: 27,180 horsepower

Highest speed on trials: 34.7 knots

Namesake: WILLIAM M. CRANE

WILLIAM M. CRANE

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, April 2018

William M. Crane, born in 1776 at Elizabethtown, N.J., was appointed midshipman in 1799 and captain in 1814. Serving as a lieutenant in Congress, he won honors for his gallant fighting in the attacks on Tripoli in 1804. Captain Crane was assigned command of the Mediterranean Squadron in 1827 and acted as one of the commissioners in the negotiations with the Ottoman Empire. He was on the Board of Navy Commissioners and the first Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography from 1842 until his death 18 March 1846.

Disposition:

Sold to Ship - Shape Inc., Philadelphia, PA on 10/17/1946 for $13, 449.00. Scrapped.

USS CRANE DD-109 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, April 2018

Crane (Destroyer No. 109) was launched 4 July 1918 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., San Francisco, Calif.; sponsored by Mrs. M. McGuire; and commissioned 18 April 1919, Lt. Cmdr. William F. Gresham in command.

Clearing San Francisco on 21 April 1919, Crane arrived at Newport, R.I., on 13 May. She sailed for duty in European waters on 5 June, visiting ports in England and France and joining the escort for the troop transport George Washington (Id.No. 3018) carrying President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference. Returning to New York on 27 July, Crane was assigned to the Pacific Fleet, and arrived at San Francisco on 1 September. There she participated in the Naval Review, during which she was visited by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels on 4 September. After operations off the coast of Washington, Crane — placed in reserve at San Diego on 26 January 1920 — was reclassified to DD-109 on 17 July 1920, and participated in occasional maneuvers until decommissioned on 7 June 1922 at San Diego.

Recommissioned on 18 December 1939, Cmdr. Marion Y. Cohen in command, Crane joined the Neutrality Patrol in the Pacific. She continued patrols and provided training for U.S. Naval Reservists and Armed Guard crews until the outbreak of the war.

Crane remained on the west coast on antisubmarine patrol, local escort duty, training exercises, and screening duty for amphibious exercises until 22 April 1944, when she was assigned to the West Coast Sound Training School. After the war, she departed San Diego on 2 October 1945, and arrived at Philadelphia on 19 October. Decommissioned on 14 November 1945, she was sold on 1 November 1946.