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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 41952:  USS Thatcher leading other destroyers into a harbor, circa 1919-1921

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

USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162, later DD-162), 1919-1940

USS Thatcher was a 1060-ton Little class destroyer built at Quincy, Massachusetts. Commissioned on 14 January 1919, she operated in the Atlantic area for the next two years, with her duties including that of plane guard during the May 1919 trans-Atlantic flight attempt of the NC flying boats. Thatcher was designated DD-162 in July 1920 and went to the West Coast in the Autumn of 1921. Following brief service in the Pacific she was decommissioned at San Diego, California, in June 1922.

After more than seventeen years in "Red Lead Row", Thatcher was resurrected by the outbreak of World War II in Europe, with its resulting need for enhanced American defenses. She recommissioned in December 1939 and was sent back to the Atlantic in April 1940. While she was employed on the Neutrality Patrol and underwent training the war situation turned sharply against the Allied cause. Great Britain, under bombardment from the air, threatened with invasion and menaced by German submarines, urgently needed more ships. As part of a deal in which fifty old U.S. destroyers were exchanged for Western Hemisphere basing rights, in September 1940 USS Thatcher was decommissioned at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy.

Renamed HMCS Niagara, the ship served as a convoy escort for some four years. Among her exploits was participation in the capture of German submarine U-570 in late August 1941. In 1944, with large numbers of more modern escorts available for front line work, Niagara was assigned duty as a torpedo training ship. She was decommissioned in September 1945 and scrapped in 1947.

USS Thatcher was named in honor of Rear Admiral Henry K. Thatcher, USN (1806-1880), who commanded the West Gulf Blockading Squadron at the end of the Civil War.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162, later DD-162).


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 99264

USS Thatcher
(Destroyer # 162)

At the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 14 January 1919.
Panogramic photograph by J. Crosby, Naval Photographer, # 11 Portland Street, Boston.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 91KB; 1200 x 460 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 41953

USS Thatcher
(DD-162)

Underway, circa 1919-1921.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 152KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 41952

USS Thatcher
(DD-162)

Leading other destroyers into a harbor, circa 1919-1921.
The next ship astern is USS Crosby (DD-164).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 550 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 85033

USS Cuyama
(Oiler # 3)

At Acapulco, Mexico, circa 1919, with several destroyers alongside.
Destroyers off Cuyama's starboard side are (from left to center:
USS Walker (Destroyer # 163);
USS Crosby (Destroyer # 164); and
USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162).
USS Gamble (Destroyer # 123) is moored along Cuyama's port side.

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1976.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 510 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42538

Destroyers at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1919


These ships are (from left to right):
USS Tarbell (Destroyer # 142);
USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162);
USS Rizal (Destroyer # 174);
USS Hart (Destroyer # 110);
USS Hogan (Destroyer # 178);
USS Gamble (Destroyer # 123);
USS Ramsay (Destroyer # 124); and
USS Williams (Destroyer # 108).

Donation of Rear Admiral Ammen Farenholt, USN (Medical Corps).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 555 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42537

Destroyers at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1919


These ships are (from left to right):
USS Tarbell (Destroyer # 142);
USS Thatcher (Destroyer # 162);
USS Rizal (Destroyer # 174);
USS Hart (Destroyer # 110);
USS Hogan (Destroyer # 178);
USS Gamble (Destroyer # 123);
USS Ramsay (Destroyer # 124); and
USS Williams (Destroyer # 108).

Donation of Rear Admiral Ammen Farenholt, USN (Medical Corps).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 555 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 95792

Trans-Atlantic Flight of the "NC" Aircraft, May 1919


Diagram of the third leg of the flight of the NC-1, NC-3 and NC-4 aircraft, between Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland, and the Azores, during 16 May to 20 May 1919. It also shows the positions of the 21 U.S. Navy destroyers stationed along the way.
Printed by the Matthews-Northrup Works, Buffalo, New York.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 109KB; 900 x 605 pixels

 


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


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Page made 15 April 2004