Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

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

Photo # NH 99253:  USS Lamson underway, 1912

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

USS Lamson (Destroyer # 18), 1910-1919

USS Lamson, a 700-ton Smith class destroyer built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in February 1910. She served along the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean area prior to 1917, participating in operations off the troubled Dominican Republic and Mexico in 1916. In July 1917, a few months after the United States entered World War I, Lamson steamed to the Azores, where she was employed on patrol and escort missions until October. After that, the destroyer was based at Brest, France, performing similar functions in a successful effort to control the German submarine threat against Allied shipping. A month after the 11 November 1918 Armistice ended the fighting, she returned home. USS Lamson was decommissioned in July 1919 and was sold in November of that year.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Lamson (Destroyer # 18).


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 88479

USS Lamson
(Destroyer # 18)

Running builder's trials, circa late 1909 or early 1910.
Photographed by J.W. Dawson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Retired), 1978.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 490 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 85147

USS Lamson
(Destroyer # 18)

At anchor, circa 1910, before her smokestacks were raised.

Courtesy of William H. Davis, 1977.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99253

USS Lamson
(Destroyer # 18)

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

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 500 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99252

USS Lamson
(Destroyer # 18)

In harbor, circa 1912.

Collection of Admiral Harold R. Stark, USN.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 440 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 54955

Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania


Older destroyers in the Navy Yard's Reserve Basin, preparing to go out of commission, 5 March 1919.
They are, from left to right:
USS Lamson (Destroyer # 18);
USS Flusser (Destroyer # 20);
USS Paul Jones (Destroyer # 10); and
USS Decatur (Destroyer # 5).
Other ships are in the background.
Note depth charge racks, after steering wheels and twin 18-inch torpedo tubes on Lamson and Flusser.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 133KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 


USS Lamson (Destroyer # 18) is seen in the background of the following view of another ship:

Photo #: NH 56377

USS Benham
(Destroyer # 49)

Leaving Brest harbor, France, to take escort position, on 22 October 1918.
USS Lamson (Destroyer # 18) is in the left center distance.
Note the pattern camouflage worn by both destroyers.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 


USS Lamson (Destroyer # 18) may be among the destroyers seen in the following photograph:

Photo #: NH 99867

Destroyers in port, 4 January 1914


These are probably members of the First Division, U.S. Atlantic Fleet Torpedo Flotilla, which included (on 1 January 1914): Smith (Destroyer # 17), Lamson (Destroyer # 18), Preston (Destroyer # 19), Flusser (Destroyer # 20) and Reid (Destroyer # 21). Smith and Lamson had their smokestacks arranged like the ship in the middle (1-2-1). Preston had four equally-spaced smokestacks, like the destroyer second from right.
This photo is one of a series from the collection of a USS Walke (Destroyer # 34) crewmember, a three-stack member of the Second Division, U.S. Atlantic Fleet Torpedo Flotilla. A destroyer of that division is visible in the left background.

Courtesy of Jim Kazalis, 1981.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 445 pixels

 


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 April 2004
New image added 31 December 2004