DD-168 - Tin Can Sailors

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Hull Number: DD-168

Launch Date: 10/27/1918

Commissioned Date: 03/10/1919

Decommissioned Date: 09/23/1940

Call Sign: NETX

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 A. T. MADDOX

WILLIAM A. T. MADDOX

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2015

William A. T. Maddox, born in Charles County, Md., in 1814, commanded a volunteer company in the Creek and Seminole Wars in 1836, and was appointed 2d lieutenant in the Marine Corps 14 October 1837. Serving in the Mexican War, he was breveted captain for “gallant and meritorious conduct” as Military Commandant of the Middle District of California during a Mexican uprising at Monterey and during the Battle of Santa Clara, 3 January 1847. Captain Maddox retired in 1880 and died in Washington, D.C., 1 January 1889.

Disposition:

To Britain 9/23/1940 as GEORGETOWN. Stricken 1/8/1941.

USS MADDOX DD-168 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2015

Maddox, Destroyer No. 168, was laid down 20 July 1918 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., Quincy, Mass.; launched 27 October 1918; sponsored by Mrs. Clarence N. Hinkamp, granddaughter of Captain Maddox; and commissioned 10 March 1919, Comdr. Edward C. S. Parker in command. On 17 July 1920 she was designated DD‑168.

Assigned to Division 21, Atlantic Fleet, Maddox departed Boston 3 May 1919 for Trepassey, Newfoundland, en route to the Azores where she became part of a “bridge of ships” assigned to guide Navy flying boats NC‑1 and NC‑4 across the ocean on the first transatlantic flight. Returning to Boston on the 22d, the destroyer operated out of there until she sailed for Europe 26 August 1919. Arriving Brest, France, 19 September, she soon joined an honor escort for George Washington, then bound for Osten, Belgium, to embark the Belgian King and Queen for the United States. Detached on the 25th, Maddox commenced cross‑channel service. Until 24 October she escorted ships and carried naval and Army passengers from Dover and Harwich to Boulogne, France, and the Hook of Holland. Departing Harwich 25 October, the four stacker proceeded through Kiel Canal to visit various Baltic ports.

Returning to the United States 12 February 1920, Maddox operated out of Boston for the next 2 years, off the east coast. Departing Boston 25 February 1922 for Philadelphia, she decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard 14 June 1922.

Inactive for the next 18 years, Maddox recommissioned 17 June 1940. After brief duty on mid‑Atlantic neutrality patrol, she departed Newport, R.I., 16 September 1940 for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she decommissioned 23 September 1940. The same day, under the destroyer‑naval base agreement, she was transferred to Great Britain and commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Georgetown.

As Georgetown, she participated in operation “Bowery,” escorting Wasp in May 1942 on her second reinforcement of the spitfire strength on the island of Malta. In September 1942, she transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy for convoy escort duties in the western Atlantic. Returned to the United Kingdom in December 1943, she joined the Reserve Fleet and in August 1944 was turned over to the Soviet Navy and renamed Doblestnyi (Glorious or Valiant).