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USS Whipple (DD-15)

USS Whipple (DD-15)
USS Whipple (DD-15) at anchor during the early 1900s.
History
Name: Whipple
Namesake: Commodore Abraham Whipple
Builder: Maryland Steel Company Sparrows Point, Maryland
Laid down: 13 November 1899
Launched: 15 August 1901
Sponsored by: Miss Elsie Pope
Commissioned: 17 February 1903
Decommissioned: 5 September 1905
Recommissioned: 16 July 1906
Decommissioned: 7 July 1919
Struck: 15 September 1919
Identification: Hull symbol:DD-15
Fate: sold January 3, 1920 into the merchant service as banana carrier
Status: scrapped 1956
General characteristics
Class and type: Truxtun-class destroyer
Displacement: 433 long tons (440 t) normal, 605 long tons (615 t) full load
Length: 259 ft 6 in (79.10 m)
Beam: 23 ft 3 in (7.09 m)
Draft: 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m)
Propulsion:
  • 4 × boilers, 2 × Vertical expansion engines, 8,300 ihp (6,200 kW)
  • 2 × screws
Speed: 29.6 kn (34.1 mph; 54.8 km/h)
Complement:
  • 3 Officers
  • 75 Enlisted
Armament:

The first USS Whipple (DD-15) was a Truxtun-class destroyer in the United States Navy, named for Abraham Whipple.

She was laid down on 13 November 1899 at Sparrows Point, Maryland, by the Maryland Steel Company; launched on 15 August 1901; sponsored by Miss Elsie Pope; and commissioned on 17 February 1903, Lieutenant Jehu V. Chase in command.

After training in Chesapeake Bay, Whipple was assigned to the 2nd Torpedo Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, and was based at Norfolk. The destroyer periodically served as flagship of the flotilla and operated off the east coast and in the Caribbean until she was placed in reserve at Norfolk on 5 September 1905.

Returning to active service on 16 July 1906, the ship conducted tactical exercises and routine training operations through November 1907, apart from taking part in relief operations after the 1907 Kingston earthquake in Jamaica. On 2 December, Whipple stood out of Hampton Roads and headed south toward the Caribbean for goodwill visits — "showing the flag."

Subsequently following in the wake of the 16 battleships of the "Great White Fleet", Whipple and her flotilla-mates called at Rio de Janeiro; rounded Cape Horn for ports on the Chilean and Peruvian coasts; and conducted target practice at Magdalena Bay, Mexico. After participating in a fleet review at San Francisco on 8 May 1908, Whipple remained on the west coast, based at San Diego, as a unit of the Pacific Torpedo Flotilla.


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