Hull Number: DD-42
Launch Date: 04/29/1912
Commissioned Date: 06/15/1912
Decommissioned Date: 10/31/1919
Call Sign: NID
Class: PAULDING
PAULDING Class
Data for USS Paulding (DD-22) as of 1912
Length Overall: 293' 10"
Beam: 26' 11"
Draft: 8' 4"
Standard Displacement: 742 tons
Full Load Displacement: 887 tons
Fuel capacity: 236 tons/oil
Armament:
Five 3″/50 caliber rapid fire guns
Three 18″ twin torpedo tubes
Complement:
4 Officers
82 Enlisted
Propulsion:
4 Boilers
3 Parsons Turbines: 17,393 horsepower
Highest speed on trials: 32.8 knots
Namesake: THORNTON A. JENKINS
THORNTON A. JENKINS
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2017
Thornton A. Jenkins — born in Orange Court House, Va., on 11 December 1811 — entered the Navy as a midshipman on 1 November 1828 and served in the West Indies in an expedition against pirates and slavers. After examining for a commission as a lieutenant, he placed first among 82 candidates. In August 1831 he assisted in suppressing Nat Turner’s Rebellion in Southampton County, Va. From 1834 to 1842, Jenkins was assigned as an assistant to Professor Ferdinand R. Hassler on the Coast Survey.
In 1845 Jenkins was sent to Europe in order to examine lighthouse systems and other aids to navigation, but he returned to prevent being detained in case war should occur with Great Britain. In 1846 he made an elaborate report of the illuminants, towers, light-ships, buoys, beacons, and other adjuncts of the light-house service in England, France and other European countries.
Prior to the Mexican War (1846-1848), Jenkins served with the Brazilian and Mediterranean Squadrons. During the war with Mexico, as executive officer of the sloop-of-war Germantown, he led landing parties from his ship at Tuxpan and Tabasco. Later, he commanded the hospital ship Relief and the supply station at Salmedena Island. In the interval between the wars, he served in the receiving ship at Baltimore, returned to the Coast Survey and was Secretary of the Lighthouse Board.
From 1848 to 1851, when Professor Alexander D. Bache was superintendent of the Coast Survey, Jenkins was engaged, while in command of the schooner John Y. Mason and the steamers Jefferson and Corwin, in meteorological and hydrographic observations and in taking deep-sea temperatures in the Gulf Stream. The latter vessel was built from his designs and under his superintendence.
In October 1852, Jenkins was appointed Naval Secretary to the Light House Board, having for two years previous served as secretary to the temporary board. He was promoted to commander on 14 September 1855 and commanded the sloop Preble in the Paraguayan expedition of 1858-1859. Immediately upon his return, he was ordered to the Caribbean in search of William Walker, the American physician, lawyer, journalist and mercenary who organized several private military expeditions into Latin America with the intention of establishing English-speaking colonies under his personal control.
Since the Mexican War of Independence ended on 27 September 1821, Mexican liberals and the rebel conservatives warred constantly, the friction leading to a major civil war known as the Reform War (1858-1860). During the Second Siege of Veracruz in 1860, a Mexican officer named Thomas M. Marin of the Mexican Navy mutinied and escaped to Havana with several of his crewmen. There he armed and equipped five vessels to sail back to Veracruz to assist and supply conservative General Miramon’s siege of the federal held city. The Mexican government declared Marin’s fleet to be pirates, so ships of the Home Squadron were ordered to intervene and arrest Marin. Two of Marin’s ships, the steamer General Miramon and the sloop-of-war Marquis of Havana, arrived at their rendezvous off Anton Lizardo soon afterwards. They were spotted by Commodore Thomas Turner’s frigate Savannah and he ordered Jenkin’s sloop Saratoga to intervene. As the U.S. ships approached and fired warning shots, the Mexicans attempted to escape, but were closely pursued until forced to engage. A short but bloody engagement resulted in the capture of the two conservative ships and over 30 casualties on both sides. Jenkins then convoyed General Miramon and Marquis of Havana to New Orleans.
In February 1861, Jenkins was again appointed Secretary to the Light House Board. He was promoted to captain on 16 July 1862 and was the senior officer at Coggins Point S.C., the James River, Va. action and at the attack on the Union forces at City Point, Va. in August 1862. Later that fall, he was engaged in blockading Mobile, Ala. and its approaches while in command of the screw sloop Oneida of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron. He was fleet-captain and chief of staff of Farragut’s squadron in the Mississippi, commanding the steam sloop Hartford at the passing of the Port Hudson and Grand Gulf batteries. He had encounters with Confederate forces at various points on the river and at the surrender of Port Hudson on 9 July 1863, was in chief command of the naval forces. During the blockade of Mobile in 1864, he commanded the sloop Richmond and the second division of Rear Adm. David G. Farragut’s fleet and was left in command in Mobile Bay until February 1865 when he was ordered to the James River. He remained there until after the surrender of General Robert E. Lee on 9 April 1865.
Jenkins was Chief of the Bureau of Navigation from 1865 to 1869 and was promoted to commodore on 25 July 1866 and rear-admiral on 13 July 1870. He commanded the Asiatic Station from 1870 until his retirement on 12 December 1873. Rear Adm. Jenkins was President of the Naval Institute from 1883 to 1885. He died on 9 August 1893 and is interred in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery.
Disposition:
Stricken 3/8/1935. Scrapped 1935.