USS Fairfax, a 1090-ton (standard displacement) Wickes class destroyer, was built by the Mare Island Navy Yard, California. Commissioned in April 1918, she went to the Atlantic a few months later and was employed on convoy duty. In October, Fairfax crossed the ocean to Brest, France, to take up similar work in the submarine-infested approaches to France's western ports. World War I soon ended, and the destroyer returned to the U.S. early in 1919. The next three years were occupied with routine operations off the East Coast and in the Caribbean, punctuated in May 1919 by a trip to the Azores to participate in the trans-Atlantic flight of the Navy NC flying boats.
From June 1922 until May 1930 Fairfax was out of commission, laid up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. During 1930-1932 she was mainly used for Atlantic Coast Naval Reserve training, and continued to perform this function while based at San Diego, California, in 1932-1933. Back in the Atlantic for the rest of the decade, Fairfax made several U.S. Naval Academy training cruises and also served off Cuba and Central America. After September 1939, when World War II began in Europe, she was assigned to the Neutrality Patrol in addition to training service.
Fairfax was decommissioned in November 1940 and transferred to the United Kingdom as one of fifty old destroyers traded for basing rights in the Western Hemisphere. Renamed Richmond, she served in the British and Canadian Navies as a convoy escort until late 1943. Following a half-year in reserve, in June 1944 the ship was leased to the Soviet Union and renamed Zhyivuchi. She was returned in June 1949 and broken up in Scotland.
USS Fairfax was named in honor of Rear Admiral Donald M. Fairfax (1818-1894), who performed distinguished service during the Civil War.
This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93, later DD-93).
For additional images related to this ship, see:
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.
The following photograph shows a ship that May be USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93):
In addition to the images presented above and on the linked pages, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Fairfax (DD-93). The following list features this image:
The image listed below is NOT in the
Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
USS Fairfax (DD-93) in harbor, circa the 1930s, probably off New York City. Port broadside surface view.
Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The image listed in this box is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions". |
For additional images related to this ship, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 24 November 2005