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Photo # NH 100400:  USS Roe laying a smoke screen, prior to World War I

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Roe (Destroyer # 24, later DD-24), 1910-1934
Served as USCGC Roe (CG-18), 1924-1930

USS Roe, a 742-ton Paulding class destroyer built at Newport News, Virginia, was placed in commission in mid-September 1910. Two months later, on 14 November 1910, she became the first in a long line of destroyers to serve as plane guards when aviator Eugene Ely made the first aircraft takeoff from a warship's deck. Later in 1910 she went to the Gulf of Mexico for exercises and, for the next six years conducted peacetime operations along the U.S. Atlantic Coast and in the waters of the Gulf and Caribbean Sea.

As war with Germany approached in April 1917, Roe was assigned to guard German merchant ships in U.S. ports. Once war was declared she began escort and patrol service out of Newport, Rhode Island. She steamed across the Atlantic to France in November 1917 and spent the next year operating out of the port of Brest protecting allied shipping against German submarines. Roe returned to the U.S. in December 1918, shortly after the fighting ended. She was stationed at Charleston, South Carolina, until July 1919, then went to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, where she was decommissioned at the beginning of December 1919.

Designated DD-24 when the Navy implemented its hull number system in July 1920, she remained laid up until June 1924, when she was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard. As USCGC Roe (CG-18), she was employed against liquor smugglers until October 1930, when she was returned to the Navy and again placed in reserve at Philadelphia. USS Roe was sold for scrapping in mid-1934.

USS Roe was named in honor of Rear Admiral Francis A. Roe (1823-1901).

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Roe (Destroyer # 24, later DD-24).

For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Roe (Destroyer # 24, later DD-24) -- Part II.

    For 1914-era views concerning the Atlantic Fleet Torpedo Flotilla's Second Division, of which Roe was a member at the beginning of the year, see:

  • USS Walke (Destroyer # 34) -- Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla Ships and Activities, circa 1914; and
  • USS Walke (Destroyer # 34) -- Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla Ships and Activities, circa 1914 (Part II).


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 43764

    USS Roe
    (Destroyer # 24)

    In port, circa 1910-1915.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 49KB; 740 x 575 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 100400

    USS Roe
    (Destroyer # 24)

    Laying a smoke screen, prior to World War I.
    Photographed by Waterman.

    Courtesy of Jack Howland, 1985.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 465 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 64986

    USS Roe
    (Destroyer # 24)

    On patrol in 1918.
    She is painted in "dazzle" camouflage.

    Collection of Peter K. Connelly. Courtesy of William H. Davis, 1967.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 485 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45246

    Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina


    Machine foundation for the Marine Railway under construction, 13 January 1919.
    Ships in the background include:
    USS Asheville (Gunboat # 21), fitting out at extreme left;
    USS SC-405, in left center;
    USS Roe (Destroyer # 24), in center, on the opposite side of the pier, with other destroyers beyond her.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 122KB; 740 x 520 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 69025

    U.S. Coast Guard destroyers at the New York Navy Yard,
    20 October 1926

    These former U.S. Navy destroyers were transferred to the Coast Guard to help fight the illegal rum-running traffic along the East Coast. They are (from left to right):
    USCGC Monaghan (CG-15, ex USN DD-32);
    Unidentified;
    USCGC Roe (CG-18, ex USN DD-24);
    USCGC McDougal (CG-6, ex USN DD-54); and
    USCGC Ammen (CG-8, ex USN DD-35).

    Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 93718

    USS Roe
    (Destroyer # 24)

    Ship's officers and crew, circa 1915-1916.
    The two officers in the center are possibly (from left to right):
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Aaron S. Merrill, and
    Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Guy C. Barnes, Roe's commanding officer.
    The original photograph, by Rox, 518 So. Palafox, Pensacola, Florida, was printed on a postal card, which was mailed at Pensacola on 23 September 1916 with the message: "Look natural?"

    Courtesy of Jack Howland, 1982.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 495 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 103519

    USS Roe
    (Destroyer # 24)

    Sliding down the ways during her launching, at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company shipyard, Newport News, Virginia, 24 July 1909.
    The original print is a halftone reproduction.

    Collection of the Society of Sponsors of the United States Navy.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 575 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 103520

    USS Roe
    (Destroyer # 24)

    Ready for launching, at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company shipyard, Newport News, Virginia, 24 July 1909.

    Collection of the Society of Sponsors of the United States Navy.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 550 pixels

     


    For more images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Roe (Destroyer # 24, later DD-24) -- Part II.

    For 1914-era views concerning the Atlantic Fleet Torpedo Flotilla's Second Division, of which Roe was a member at the beginning of the year, see:

  • USS Walke (Destroyer # 34) -- Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla Ships and Activities, circa 1914; and
  • USS Walke (Destroyer # 34) -- Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla Ships and Activities, circa 1914 (Part II).


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 28 February 2006