DD-98 - Tin Can Sailors

Celebrating this weekend the 249^th Birthday of the U.S. Navy!

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Hull Number: DD-98

Launch Date: 06/22/1918

Commissioned Date: 09/13/1918

Decommissioned Date: 07/07/1922

Call Sign: NENG

Other Designations: DM-3

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: JOSEPH ISRAEL

JOSEPH ISRAEL

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2016

Joseph Israel entered the Navy as Midshipman 15 January 1801. He served in Maryland during the quasi-war with France and in Chesapeake, New York, and Constitution during operation in the Mediterranean against the Barbary pirates. Midshipman Israel was killed 4 September 1804 when ketch Intrepid exploded in the harbor of Tripoli during the valiant night effort to destroy the enemy shipping led by Lt. Somers. A monument to the memory of Israel and his fellow officers and men stands on the grounds of the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Disposition:

Stricken 1/25/1937. Sold 4/18/1939

USS ISRAEL DD-98 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, February 2016

Israel was launched 22 June 1918 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, Mass.; sponsored by Miss Dorothy Brown; and commissioned 13 September 1918, Lt. Comdr. George N. Barker in command.

Following shakedown out of Boston, Israel rendezvoused with South Carolina at Newport 24 September 1918, and performed escort duty on the East Coast as a unit of the Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet. She departed New York 13 October with a convoy, and arrived at Gibraltar 6 November, via the Azores and Port Leixoes, Portugal. Having escorted the Brazilian Detachment to Gibraltar Harbor 9 November, Israel arrived Venice 18 November and joined the Eastern Mediterranean Forces. She operated out of Venice and Spalato as a station ship transporting supplies and personnel until 12 July 1919 when she departed Villefranche, France, via Gibraltar and the Azores, arriving Boston 24 July.

While undergoing overhaul at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Israel was fitted out as a light minelayer and her classification changed 17 July 1920 to DM-3.

Sailing from Portsmouth, N.H., 4 March 1921, Israel cruised along the East Coast until 5 July when she joined Mine Squadron 1, Atlantic Fleet, at Gloucester, Mass. During the remainder of the year she engaged in mining practice and exercises on the East Coast; and from January to April 1922, participated in important fleet exercises based at Guantanamo Bay and Culebra, Puerto Rico.

Israel arrived Philadelphia 15 May 1922 and decommissioned there 7 July. Remaining inactive during the following years, she was reduced to a hulk in 1936 in accordance with the London Treaty. Her name was struck from the Navy List 25 January 1937, and she was sold to the Union Shipbuilding Co., Baltimore, Md., 18 April 1939.