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Photo # NH 55612:  USS Fairfax making smoke during trials, May 1918

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

USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93, later DD-93), 1918-1940

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:

  • USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93, later DD-93) -- Part II.


    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 23

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    Making smoke while running at 25 knots, during trials in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard.
    Note this ship's pattern camouflage.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 54130

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    Steaming at 25 knots while making no smoke, during trials in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard.
    Note the ship's pattern camouflage.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 560 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 2025

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    At anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard during the ship's trials.
    Note her pattern camouflage.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 55612

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    Making smoke while steaming at 25 knots during trials in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard.
    Note the ship's pattern camouflage.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 550 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 54132

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    At anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard during the ship's trials.
    Note her pattern camouflage.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 54133

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    At anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard during the ship's trials.
    Note her pattern camouflage.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 555 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 54131

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    At anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918.
    Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard during the ship's trials.
    Note her pattern camouflage.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 103248

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    Underway, circa October 1918.
    Probably photographed from USS SC-331.

    Collection of George K. Beach.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 545 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 103247

    USS Fairfax
    (Destroyer # 93)

    Underway, photographed from USS Iowa (Battleship # 4), circa summer-fall 1918.
    Note that Fairfax' port side camouflage scheme is different from that applied when she was first completed.

    Collection of Commander Haines H. Lippincott, USN(ChC).

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 39KB; 740 x 440 pixels

     


    The following photograph shows a ship that May be USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93):

    Photo #: NH 95211

    U.S. Navy Destroyer


    On convoy duty in 1918.
    This ship may be USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93), whose camouflage scheme was very similar, though not identical, to that seen here.

    Courtesy of Jack L. Howland, 1983.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 530 pixels

     


    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".



  • Photo #: 80-G-1025040
    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:

  • USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93, later DD-93) -- Part II.


    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 24 November 2005