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USS STEVENS DD-86

Home » Ships » DD-86

Hull Number: DD-86

Launch Date: 01/13/1918

Commissioned Date: 05/24/1918

Decommissioned Date: 06/16/1922

Call Sign: NAPK


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: THOMAS HOLDUP STEVENS, SR

THOMAS HOLDUP STEVENS, SR

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2015

Born in Charleston, S.C., on 22 February 1795, Thomas Holdup was orphaned at an early age and was adopted by General Daniel Stevens. On 8 February 1809, he was appointed midshipman on board Hornet. From then until 1812, he served successively in Constitution, President, and John Adams. Late in 1812, he was assigned to duty with Commodore Chauncey and distinguished himself in the attack on Black Rock on November 28th. Commodore Chauncey appointed him acting lieutenant in January 1813 and his permanent commission in that rank, to date from 24 July, was confirmed by the Senate on 3 August. On 10 September, he again distinguished himself as captain of the sloop, Trippe, during the Battle of Lake Erie. In 1815, an Act of the Legislature of South Carolina enabled him to add General Stevens’ surname to his own. Following the War of 1812, Thomas Holdup Stevens held many posts, both ashore and afloat, including tours of duty at the Norfolk and Washington Navy yards. He was promoted to master commandant on 3 March 1825 and, in 1829, he embarked on a two-year tour as commanding officer of Ontario, serving in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1832, he was assigned to the Navy Yard at Pensacola and in 1836 he was appointed captain, to date from 27 January 1836. After waiting two years for orders, he was appointed to command of the Washington Navy Yard on 29 February 1840. He served in that capacity until his death there early on the morning of 21 January 1841.


Disposition:

Stricken 1/7/1936. Sold on 09/08/36 to Boston Iron and Metal Co. Inc., Baltimore, MD. Scrapped.


Ship History

USS STEVENS DD-86 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2015

The first Stevens (Destroyer No. 86) was laid down at Quincey, Mass., on 20 September 1917 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 13 January 1918; sponsored by Miss Marie Christie Stevens; and commissioned at Boston on 24 May 1918, Comdr. Rufus F. Zogbaum, Jr., in command.

Stevens departed Boston on 3 June and arrived in New York two days later. On the 15th, she sailed for Europe in the screen of a convoy and reached Brest, France, on the 27th. The following day, she headed for Queenstown in Ireland, arriving there on 6 July. Assigned to the United States Naval Forces, Europe, Stevens operated out of that port and protected convoys on the Queenstown-Liverpool circuit until mid-December. She put to sea on the 16th and, after stops at the Azores and Bermuda, entered Boston on 3 January 1919.

Upon her return to the United States, the destroyer was assigned to Destroyer Division 7, Squadron 3, Atlantic Fleet. In the spring of 1919, she cruised to Key West, Fla., and visited New York, before getting underway from Boston on 3 May to participate in the support operations for the first successful transatlantic flight. She put into Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 4th and stood out again five days later to guard for the Navy seaplanes’ flight to Newfoundland. After returning to Halifax on the 11th, she put to sea and, by the 19th, reached Ponta Delgada, in the Azores. Along the way, she assisted in the search for one of the two downed planes, NC~3.

She completed her mission at Boston on 8 June and, a month later, shifted to Newport, R.I., for normal operations. She visited the southeastern coast of the United States during the fall and early winter of 1919 and was at Philadelphia from 17 December 1919 to 1 June 1920. Stevens operated off the New England coast until 3 November 1921 when she set course for Charleston, S.C. The destroyer returned to Philadelphia on 8 April 1922 for inactivation. She decommissioned there on 19 June and remained inactive until 7 January 1936 when her name was struck from the Navy list. On 8 September 1936, her hulk was sold to the Boston Iron and Metal Co., Inc., of Baltimore, Md., for scrapping.