USS Aaron Ward, a 1090-ton Wickes class destroyer built at Bath, Maine, was commissioned in April 1919. Her first active mission was to help cover the May 1919 trans-Atlantic flight of the Navy's NC flying boats. In September 1919 the destroyer went to the Pacific where, in November, she helped salvage an Army plane that had crashed off Mexico and recovered the bodies of its crew. She was designated DD-132 in July 1920 and remained active in the eastern Pacific for the next two years. In February 1921 she rescued the survivors of USS Woolsey (DD-77) after that destroyer was sunk in a collision. Aaron Ward was decommissioned at San Diego, California, in June 1922.
Following almost a decade in reserve Aaron Ward recommissioned May 1930. She served both with the active fleet and as part of the Rotating Reserve until April 1937, when she was again laid up. The outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 brought Aaron Ward back into commissioned service. She spent the next year operating in the Pacific and in the Caribbean area as part of the Neutrality Patrol. In September 1940 USS Aaron Ward was transferred to the United Kingdom as part of the Destroyers for Bases agreement.
Serving in the Royal Navy as HMS Castleton, the now-elderly destroyer was assigned primarily to North Atlantic convoy escort duties, though she also screened minelaying forces off Scotland. She rescued survivors of two torpedoed merchant ships on 21 November 1940, helped capture the crew of the sunken German submarine U-464 in August 1942 and, nearly a year later, rescued survivors of a downed Canadian patrol plane and of German submarine U-489. HMS Castleton paid off in March 1945, as the European War was nearing an end. She was scrapped in Scotland in 1947.
USS Aaron Ward was named in honor of Rear Admiral Aaron Ward, USN, (1851-1918), who served actively in the U.S. Navy from 1867 to 1913.
This page features all the views we have related to USS Aaron Ward (Destroyer # 132, later DD-132).
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 57701 USS Aaron Ward (Destroyer # 132) Off the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, 10 April 1919. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 580 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 98488 USS Aaron Ward (Destroyer # 132) At Boston, Massachusetts, 23 April 1919. Panoramic photograph by J. Crosby, Naval Photographer, 11 Portland St., Boston, Mass. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Crosby Collection. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 305 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 69308 USS Aaron Ward (DD-132) Photographed during the early 1920s, probably off the U.S. West Coast. USS Buchanan (DD-131) is at left. Courtesy of ESKC Joseph L. Aguillard, USNR, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 490 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 100414 USS Anthony (DD-172) (center) and USS Aaron Ward (DD-132) (left) Photographed circa the early 1920s, probably in San Diego harbor, California. An oiler is visible behind Aaron Ward. Courtesy of Jack Howland, 1985. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 470 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 67553 USS Aaron Ward (DD-132) Underway, probably during the 1930s. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 435 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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Photo #: NH 69018 USS Aaron Ward (Destroyer # 132) An officer and two sailors stand watch over the flag-draped caskets of Army Lieutenants Cecil H. Connolly and Waterhouse Weiser, on board the destroyer in November 1919. The two Army fliers were killed when their plane crashed while searching for other lost aviators in Mexico. Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 85KB; 590 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 98487 Thirteenth Destroyer Division Officers & Crews on board their ships in San Diego Harbor, California, 6 December 1919. Signalmen are sending semaphore messages from atop the ships' bridges. Panoramic photograph by O.A. Tunnell, Masonic Temple Building, San Diego. Ships present are (from left to right): Upshur (Destroyer # 144), Greer (Destroyer # 145), Elliot (Destroyer # 146), Aaron Ward (Destroyer # 132), Buchanan (Destroyer # 131) and Philip (Destroyer # 76). Donation of Captain W.D. Puleston, USN (Retired), 1965. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 107KB; 1200 x 275 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 98029 "Old Hen and Chickens" USS Kanawha (AO-1) with thirteen destroyers alongside, off San Diego, California, during the early 1920s. Photographed by Bunnell, 414 E Street, San Diego. Ships present are identified in Photo # NH 98029 (complete caption). Collection of Chief Quartermaster John Harold, USN. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 465 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 42539 "Red Lead Row", San Diego Destroyer Base, California Photographed at the end of 1922, with at least 65 destroyers tied up there. Many of the ships present are identified in Photo # NH 42539 (complete caption). U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 159KB; 740 x 515 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 49903 U.S. Navy Destroyers Moored together at Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, circa April 1934. Photographed by Stahl. Destroyers present include (from right to left): USS Detroit (CL-8) is in the right background. Note bands painted on the after smokestacks of William B. Preston and Preble. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 585 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-455906 Balboa Harbor, Panama Canal Zone Aerial photograph taken 23 April 1934, with U.S. Fleet cruisers and destroyers moored together. Most of the ships present are identified in Photo # 80-G-455906 (extended caption). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 298KB; 1200 x 970 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 26 May 2003