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Photo # NH 84409:  USS Hancock off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, during the early 1900s

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

USS Hancock (1902-1926, later AP-3 and IX-12).
Previously U.S. Army Transport Hancock (1898-1902),
Originally built as S.S. Arizona (1879)

USS Hancock, an 8500 ton (displacement) transport, was built at Glasgow, Scotland, in 1879 as the commercial steamship Arizona. She was purchased by the U.S. War Department during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and served as an Army Transport until November 1902, when she was transferred to the Navy. Placed in commission later in that month, Hancock steamed around South America from California to New York, and was decommissioned in March 1903. Following conversion work, she was recommissioned in September to begin nearly a decade as the New York Navy Yard's Receiving Ship.

In September 1913 Hancock left New York for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to be prepared for seagoing transport duty. In 1914 she carried Marines to and from Mexico and supported operations in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The ship continued to serve in the Caribbean area for the next few years. Among the services she performed was carrying men and material from the armored cruiser Memphis, which had been wrecked at Santo Domingo in August 1916. In March 1917 Hancock was present as the United States took possession of the Virgin Islands.

When the United States entered the First World War in April 1917, Hancock seized two German merchantmen interned in the Virgin Islands. In May she took possession of two more at San Juan, Puerto Rico, towing one of them to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Her next assignment, during June and July 1917, was to take U.S. servicemen across the Atlantic to France. Following completion of that mission Hancock resumed her service in the West Indies and Gulf of Mexico region. In April-August 1920 she steamed to Scotland with Sailors who were to man the ex-German battleship Ostfriesland and cruiser Frankfurt during their voyages to the United States. When the Navy implemented its alpha-numeric hull number system in July 1920 she was designated AP-3.

Following some months of further transport service between the U.S. East Coast and the West Indies, and a trip through the Panama Canal to San Francisco, California, in May 1921Hancock went to the Hawaiian Islands to become the Receiving Ship at Pearl Harbor. She was employed in this stationary duty for four years, at some point receiving the designation IX-12, then returned to California under tow in July 1925. Decommissioned at the beginning of September 1925, USS Hancock was sold in May 1926.

This page features, and provides links to all the views we have concerning USS Hancock (1902-1926, later AP-3 and IX-12).

For additional images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Hancock (1902-1926, later AP-3 and IX-12) -- Part II; and
  • USAT Hancock (U.S. Army Transport, 1898-1902).


    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 84409

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3)

    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, during the early 1900s.

    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1976.

    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

    Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 600 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 84408

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3)

    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, during the early 1900s.

    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1976.

    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

    Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 590 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 93996

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3), at left

    Tied up at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, circa May 1908, while serving as Receiving Ship there.
    Tug Narkeeta (Steam Tug # 3, later YT-3) is passing by in the right foreground.
    Beyond Hancock is a smokestack of USS Baltimore, then laid up in reserve, the Executive Office, then the Marine Barracks.
    Note that Hancock's sides, amidships and aft, have been built up for receiving ship service.

    Courtesy of M.S. Brainard, 1982.

    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

    Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 465 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 105913

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3)

    As the receiving ship at the New York Navy Yard circa 1910, when the Connecticut-class battleship in the right distance received her two cage masts.
    The original image is printed on post card stock. See Photo # NH 105913-A for a view of the reverse of this card, featuring an undated message from a Sailor to his sister, Mrs. Edgar Hallett of Dorchester (Boston), Massachusetts, concerning his service in the ship's dynamo room.
    A second postcard, with an identical photograph, remains in the posession of the donor. Postmarked on Hancock on 2 December 1910, it features a message from the same Sailor to his mother, Mrs. Martha McCreedy, also of Dorchester, concerning his assignment to the ship for the next five months.

    Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2008.

    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

    Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 470 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 104680

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3)

    Photograph dated 9 March 1914.

    Courtesy of Jim Kazalis, 1981.

    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

    Online Image: 46KB; 740 x 450 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 106691

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3)

    Docked at Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914.
    The original image is printed on post card ("AZO") stock.
    The reverse of the original card is inscribed, in ink: "The home of the First Advance Base Regt. U.S. Marine Corps".

    Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2009.

    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

    Online Image: 111KB; 900 x 580 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 106252

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3)

    "In action", circa 1914-1917.
    She appears to be firing salutes in this photo, which was copyrighted by N. Moser, New York, and printed on post card ("AZO") stock.
    Note the heavily retouched bow wave streaming away from the "thousand-ton" destroyer partially visible at right.

    Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2008.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 465 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 82131

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3)

    At the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, 1915-1916.

    Collection of Lieutenant Commander Abraham DeSomer, donated by Myles DeSomer, 1975.

    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

    Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 575 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 104679

    USS Hancock
    (1902-1926, later AP-3)

    In harbor with Marines crowding her decks, circa 1916.

    Collection of Eugene Bennett, donated by his daughter, Jene B. Hart, September 1988.

    U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

    Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 490 pixels

     
    Note: This image is disfigured by several vertical cracks


    For additional images related to this ship, see:

  • USS Hancock (1902-1926, later AP-3 and IX-12) -- Part II; and
  • USAT Hancock (U.S. Army Transport, 1898-1902).


    NOTES:

  • To the best of our knowledge, the pictures referenced here are all in the Public Domain, and can therefore be freely downloaded and used for any purpose.

  • Some images linked from this page bear obsolete credit lines citing the organization name: "Naval Historical Center". Effective 1 December 2008 the name should be cited as: "Naval History and Heritage Command".


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


    Return to Naval History and Heritage Command home page.

    Page made 24 March 2007
    New image added 20 December 2009