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Photo # NH 99132:  USS Upshur circa 1940-1941

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

USS Upshur (Destroyer # 144, later DD-144 and AG-103), 1918-1947

USS Upshur, a 1090-ton Wickes class destroyer built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in December 1918. She operated in the western Atlantic for the next several months, and in May 1919 was stationed along the route taken by the Navy's "NC" flying boats during their attempt to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. Upshur spent the next two months in northern European waters, then was transferred to the Pacific Coast. Designated DD-144 in July 1920, the destroyer spent most of that year and all of 1921 as a unit of the Asiatic Fleet. She was decommissioned in May 1922, soon after returning to the U.S., and laid up at San Diego, California.

Recommissioned in June 1930, Upshur served in both the Pacific and the Atlantic before again being laid up in December 1936, this time at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The outbreak of World War II in Europe called her back to active duty in October 1939. As a unit of the Neutrality Patrol, she operated in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, later moving to the north Atlantic where she began convoy escort missions in September 1941. This work became increasingly intense during the next three months, as relations between the United States and Hitler's Germany rapidly deteriorated into a state of undeclared war.

Upshur's Atlantic convoy duties continued for more than two years after the United States formally entered the conflict in December 1941. With newer escorts available by 1944, she was reassigned to provide plane guard and target services for new aircraft carriers. Redesignated AG-103 in June 1945, shortly before the end of the war, Upshur was decommissioned in early November 1945 and soon stricken from the list of Naval vessels. She was sold for scrapping in September 1947.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Upshur (Destroyer # 144, later DD-144 and AG-103).


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 45264

USS Upshur
(DD-144)

In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa 1931-1932.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 45263

USS Upshur
(DD-144)

In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, circa 1931.
The heavy cruiser in the background is one of the flagship version of the Northampton class, either Chicago (CA-29), Houston (CA-30) or Augusta (CA-31). The boat in the far right foreground is from USS Northampton (CA-26).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 67480

USS Upshur
(DD-144)

Photographed during the 1930s.

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 47KB; 740 x 500 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 47002

USS Upshur
(DD-144)
and
USS Tarbell (DD-142)

Tied up in port, during the later 1930s.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 83KB; 600 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99132

USS Upshur
(DD-144)

Photographed circa 1940-1941.
Note the degaussing cables installed externally on her hull, just below the main deck level.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 75535

USS Upshur
(DD-144)

Officers and Crew pose beside their ship, circa late 1918.
Note the liferaft alongside Upshur's forward superstructure, and the 3"/23 anti-aircraft gun alongside her forward smokestack.

Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, 1972.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 118KB; 740 x 450 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 95792

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


Diagram of the third leg of the flight of the NC-1, NC-3 and NC-4 aircraft, between Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland, and the Azores, during 16 May to 20 May 1919. It also shows the positions of the 21 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: 109KB; 900 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98487

Thirteenth Destroyer Division


Officers & Crews on board their ships in San Diego Harbor, California, 6 December 1919. Signalmen are sending semaphore messages from atop the ships' bridges.
Panoramic photograph by O.A. Tunnell, Masonic Temple Building, San Diego.
Ships present are (from left to right): Upshur (Destroyer # 144), Greer (Destroyer # 145), Elliot (Destroyer # 146), Aaron Ward (Destroyer # 132), Buchanan (Destroyer # 131) and Philip (Destroyer # 76).

Donation of Captain W.D. Puleston, USN (Retired), 1965.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 107KB; 1200 x 275 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 69058

Destroyers laid up at San Diego, California


Part of the two fleets of 150 World War I destroyers which were laid up during the 1920s at San Diego and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This view, dated 3 October 1928, was taken from the foremast "crow's nest" of one of the destroyers, shows USS Tattnall (DD-125) at the head of the nest in the center, and USS Upshur (DD-144) at the head of the nest in the right distance.
Note the caps placed over these ships' smokestacks.

Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 123KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 42539

"Red Lead Row", San Diego Destroyer Base, California


Photographed at the end of 1922, with at least 65 destroyers tied up there. Many of the ships present are identified in Photo # NH 42539 (complete caption).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 159KB; 740 x 515 pixels

 


In addition to the views referenced above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other photograph of USS Upshur (DD-144). The following listing describes 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-10271
    USS Upshur (DD-144) at anchor, circa 1922.
    Starboard bow surface view, showing the ship with dense smoke coming from some of her smokestacks and an awning rigged over her foredeck. She is in essentially "as built" configuration, with open sides on her midships deckhouse and the after 4"/50 gun on the fantail, but wears the countershaded hull numbers introduced in about 1922.


    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 above 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".


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


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    Page made 28 February 2004