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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 99404:  USS Drayton underway in western French waters, 1918

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

USS Drayton (Destroyer # 23, later DD-23),
1910-1935. Renamed DD-23 in 1933

USS Drayton, a 742-ton Paulding class destroyer built at Bath, Maine, was commissioned in late October 1910. She operated along the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean for the first six and a half years of her service, taking part in regular fleet exercises and, in 1914, participating in operations off Mexico. In April 1917, as the U.S. entered World War I, Drayton seized the German steamer Frieda Leonhardt.

Following brief patrol duty off the Atlantic Coast, in May 1917 Drayton crossed the Atlantic to the British Isles. Operating out of Queenstown, Ireland, she escorted convoys, made antisubmarine patrols and rescued survivors of two torpedoed merchant ships. Drayton's base was shifted to Brest, France, in February 1918. She worked from there for the rest of World War I, leaving to return to the U.S. in mid-December 1918. Her post-war active service was brief, consisting of routine exercises during the first half of 1919, after which she was sent to the Philadelphia Navy Yard to be laid up. USS Drayton was decommissioned in November 1919 and remained in reserve for more than a decade and a half. Her name was reduced to DD-23 in July 1933, and she was sold for scrapping in June 1935.

USS Drayton was named in honor of Captain Percival Drayton, USN (1812-1865), who performed notable service during the Civil War.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Drayton (Destroyer # 23, later DD-23).


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 54567

USS Drayton
(Destroyer # 23)

Running builder's trials in 1910, prior to installation of her armament.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 585 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99398

USS Drayton
(Destroyer # 23)

Fine screen halftone reproduction of a photograph of Drayton making 28.92 knots during builder's trials, 1910.
Copied from "The New Navy of the United States", by N.L. Stebbins, (New York, 1912).

Donation of David Shadell, 1987.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 500 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99255

USS Drayton
(Destroyer # 23)

Underway in 1912.
Photographed by O.W. Waterman, Hampton, Virginia.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 505 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 564

USS Drayton
(Destroyer # 23)

Photographed prior to World War I, probably in New York Harbor.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 590 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99404

USS Drayton
(Destroyer # 23)

Underway in western French waters, seen from on board another ship, 1918.
Note Drayton's pattern camouflage.

Collection of Robert S. Waters. Donated by Mrs. Alice W. Thomas, 1972.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 88KB; 740 x 575 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99400

USS Drayton
(Destroyer # 23)

At the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 11 February 1919.
Photographed by J. Crosby, Naval Photographer, # 11 Portland Street, Boston.
Note Drayton's damaged stem, and the masts of USS Constitution in the left background.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C. Crosby Collection.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 420 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103932

USS Drayton
(Destroyer # 23)

Damage to the ship's bow, after a collision with USS Aylwin (Destroyer # 47), circa 1916-1917 or 1919.
The original image was printed on postal card stock.

Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2006.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 495 pixels

 


USS Drayton is seen, distantly, in the left center of the following photograph:

Photo #: NH 76418

U.S. Atlantic Fleet at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa 1916-1917


Second section from left (of six) of a panoramic photograph taken from the Naval Station radio tower.
Among the ships present are: battleships South Carolina and Michigan (toward the left, in no particular order); destroyers Drayton (left center) and Aylwin (center, middle distance); and a battleship that is either Wyoming or Arkansas (right foreground).
See Photo # s NH 76415 and NH 76416 for a reproduction of the entire original panoramic image.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C. Donation of MMC Jesse Forton, USN (Retired), 1972.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 435 pixels

 


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


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Page made 20 June 2004