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Photo # 80-G-1025121: USS Black Hawk with four destroyers and USS Heron alongside, at Manila, 15 November 1935

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

USS Black Hawk (AD-9, originally ID # 2140), 1918-1948

USS Black Hawk, a 5690-ton (displacement) destroyer tender, was built in 1913 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the 6381 gross ton commercial freighter Santa Catalina. She was purchased by the Navy in December 1917 and, following conversion work, placed in commission in mid-May 1918 as USS Black Hawk (ID # 2140). In June 1918 the ship steamed across the Atlantic to Inverness, Scotland, to begin World War I duty as flagship and tender to forces engaged in laying the North Sea mine barrage. When fighting ended in November she began supporting the effort to sweep up those thousands of mines. For nearly all of 1919, until the barrage was declared cleared, Black Hawk was based at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands. She returned to the U.S. in November 1919 and was then stationed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as tender for destroyers in reserve.

In 1920 Black Hawk was further refitted as a destroyer tender, receiving the designation AD-9 in November. Following a year and a half with the Atlantic Fleet's destroyer force, in June 1922 she again crossed the Atlantic, bound for the Far East by way of the Suez Canal. She spent nearly twenty years as part of the Asiatic Fleet, maintaining destroyers and other smaller ships operating in Philippine and Chinese waters. Black Hawk was sent to the Dutch East Indies as war with Japan approached in late 1941. As Japan's victorious offensive swept southwards she was pulled back to Australia, where she remained until late May 1942.

Black Hawk then went to Pearl Harbor, and in late July, to the Aleutians. Except for brief trips to Pearl Harbor, she helped maintain the U.S. Navy's operational forces in the North Pacific until March 1945. Overhauled in California during the next two months, the veteran tender was then stationed at Pearl Harbor during the last part of of World War II. In September 1945 she went back to the western Pacific for a final tour of active service. USS Black Hawk left the Far East in May 1946 and was placed out of commission in mid-August of that year. She was transferred to the Maritime Commission in September 1947 and sold for scrapping in March 1948.

This page features views concerning USS Black Hawk (ID # 2140 and AD-9), selected from the comprehensive pictorial coverage of her contained in the following pages:

  • USS Black Hawk (ID # 2140) -- Views of the Ship taken in 1917-1919;
  • USS Black Hawk (ID # 2140) -- On Board and Miscellaneous Views taken in 1917-1919;
  • USS Black Hawk (AD-9) -- Views of the Ship taken in 1920-1941;
  • USS Black Hawk (AD-9) -- Views of the Ship taken in 1942-1946;
  • USS Black Hawk (AD-9) -- 1920-1946 Views of the Ship with Destroyers Alongside; and
  • USS Black Hawk (AD-9) -- On Board and Miscellaneous Views taken in 1920-1946.


    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 56398

    USS Black Hawk
    (ID # 2140)

    Moored at Inverness, Scotland, in September 1918, while serving as Mine Force repair ship and flagship.
    Note her pattern camouflage.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 515 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 56673

    USS Black Hawk
    (ID # 2140)

    Anchored in Scottish waters, with a trawler and minesweepers alongside, circa 1919.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 455 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 61909

    USS Black Hawk
    (AD-9)

    Anchored in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa 1920-1921.

    Courtesy of Gustave Maurer, 1921.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 78021

    USS Black Hawk
    (AD-9)

    Anchored in Philippine waters, 19 December 1935.
    She serviced Destroyer Squadron Five.

    Courtesy of Rear Admiral J.P. Walker, USN (Retired), 1973.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 92KB; 740 x 565 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-1025121

    USS Black Hawk
    (AD-9)

    At Manila, Philippine Islands, 15 November 1935, with four destroyers and USS Heron (AM-10) nested alongside.
    The four destroyers are (from left to right):
    USS Whipple (DD-217);
    USS John D. Edwards (DD-216);
    USS Smith Thompson (DD-212); and
    USS Barker (DD-213).
    All ships are "full dressed" with flags in honor of the inauguration of Philippine President Manuel Quezon.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 600 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-42257

    USS Black Hawk
    (AD-9)

    Underway off San Francisco, California, 28 February 1943.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 38KB; 740 x 390 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 80-G-K-6439 (cropped) (Color)

    USS Black Hawk (AD-9)

    Moored at Naval Operating Base, Adak, Alaska, circa summer 1944.
    She is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 18D.
    This image is greatly enlarged from Photo # 80-G-K-6439.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 84KB; 740 x 550 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 53062

    USS Black Hawk
    (ID # 2140)

    "Crewmembers smiling now that they have returned to home waters after two and a half years as part of the U.S. minesweeping fleet, 23 November 1919." (quoted from the original 1919-vintage caption)
    Black Hawk initially deployed to the British Isles in June 1918 and returned to the U.S. in November 1919, a period of nearly one and a half years.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 570 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 100370

    USS Black Hawk
    (AD-9)

    Loading relief food supplies at Tsingtao, China, for transportation to Tokyo, Japan, following the great earthquake of September 1923.
    Note Chinese coolies and wooden carts in the foreground.

    Collection of Eugene R. O'Brien.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 460 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 101147

    USS Black Hawk
    (AD-9)

    Two crewmen pose with one of the ship's 5"/51 guns, in Asiatic waters circa 1937-1939.
    Seaman Harold Gerwien is at left. Man at right is Rinella.

    From the album of Harold Gerwien, courtesy of Photographer's Mate Harold Gerwien, USN, 1986.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 535 pixels

     

    For comprehensive pictorial coverage concerning USS Black Hawk (ID # 2140 and AD-9), see:

  • USS Black Hawk (ID # 2140) -- Views of the Ship taken in 1917-1919;
  • USS Black Hawk (ID # 2140) -- On Board and Miscellaneous Views taken in 1917-1919;
  • USS Black Hawk (AD-9) -- Views of the Ship taken in 1920-1941;
  • USS Black Hawk (AD-9) -- Views of the Ship taken in 1942-1946;
  • USS Black Hawk (AD-9) -- 1920-1946 Views of the Ship with Destroyers Alongside; and
  • USS Black Hawk (AD-9) -- On Board and Miscellaneous Views taken in 1920-1946.


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


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 7 November 2004