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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
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).
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 |
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Photo #: NH 41953
USS Thatcher (DD-162)
Underway, circa 1919-1921.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 152KB; 740 x 600 pixels |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Page made 15 April 2004