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

Photo # NH 53629:  USS Harding in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa 1920-1921

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

USS Harding (Destroyer # 91, later DD-91), 1919-1936

USS Harding, a 1060-ton Little class destroyer, was built at San Francisco, California. Commissioned in January 1919, she steamed to the Atlantic Coast during February and, later in that month, escorted President Woodrow Wilson, embarked in USS George Washington, into Boston Harbor as he returned from peace negotiations in France. During March and April Harding participated in fleet exercises off Cuba and in May she served as a guide and lifeguard ship during the attempt of the "NC" seaplanes to fly across the Atlantic, rendering assistance to the NC-1 after it was forced down near the Azores. Afterwards, the destroyer visited Brest, France, before returning to the U.S.

Following training operations off the East Coast, in late 1919 Harding entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard to be converted to a seaplane tender. In June 1920, soon after this work was completed, she was sent to Vera Cruz, Mexico, with a cargo of medical supplies needed there to help fight an outbreak of the plague. For the rest of the year, and into 1921, Harding supported aviation activities at Pensacola, Florida, and in the Caribbean. In June and July 1921 she took part in bombing tests against former German warships. The following year was spent in Atlantic coastal waters. USS Harding was decommissioned at the beginning of July 1922 and laid up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. She was stricken from the list of Navy ships in January 1936 and sold for scrapping in September of that year.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Harding (Destroyer # 91, later DD-91).


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 103073

USS Harding
(Destroyer # 91)

At Port au Prince, Haiti, 1919.
The original image is printed on postal card ("AZO") stock.

Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2005.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 60KB; 740 x 475 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 53629

USS Harding
(DD-91)

In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa 1920-1921.
She has been converted to a seaplane tender, with the aviation insignia painted on her forward smokestack, but still retains at least her forward torpedo tubes.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 585 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 72872

Trans-Atlantic Flight of the "NC" Aircraft, May 1919


Seaplane NC-1 down at sea after her forced landing, with USS Harding (Destroyer # 91) coming up to render assistance, May 1919.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 79596

Trans-Atlantic Flight of the "NC" Aircraft, May 1919


USS Gridley (Destroyer # 92) arrives on the scene of the foundering seaplane NC-1, as seen from USS Harding (Destroyer # 91), May 1919. A whaleboat from Harding is standing by the disabled airplane.
Photographed by Jim Dan Hill.

Donation of Major General Jim Dan Hill, U.S. Army (Retired), 1964.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 79595

Navy/Curtiss NC-3 seaplane


At Ponta Delgada, Azores, after taxiing there following her forced landing 200 miles at sea during the May 1919 trans-Atlantic flight of the "NC" flying boats.
Photographed by Jim Dan Hill from on board USS Harding (Destroyer # 91).

Donation of Major General Jim Dan Hill, U.S. Army (Retired), 1964.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 73KB; 740 x 450 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 95799

Trans-Atlantic Flight of the "NC" Aircraft, May 1919


Diagram of the sixth, and final, leg of the flight of the NC-4 aircraft, from Lisbon, Portugal, to Plymouth, England, during 30-31 May 1919. It also shows the positions of the ten 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: 142KB; 485 x 925 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 29 January 2006