USS Walker (DD-163)
.jpg) |
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Namesake: | John Grimes Walker |
| Builder: | Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts |
| Laid down: | 19 June 1918 |
| Launched: | 14 September 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 31 January 1919 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 June 1922 |
| Reclassified: |
|
| Struck: | 24 June 1942 |
| Fate: | Scuttled, 28 December 1941 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Wickes class destroyer |
| Displacement: | 1,284 tons |
| Length: | 314 ft 4 1⁄2 in (95.822 m) |
| Beam: | 30 ft 11 in (9.42 m) |
| Draft: | 9 ft 2 in (2.79 m) |
| Speed: | 35 knots (65 km/h) |
| Complement: | 101 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 4 × 4" (102 mm), 2 × 3" (76 mm), 12 × 21" (533 mm) torpedo tubes |
The first USS Walker (DD-163) was a Wickes class destroyer that saw service in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named for Admiral John Grimes Walker.
Walker was laid down on 19 June 1918 at Quincy, Massachusetts, by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company under contract from Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 14 September 1918; sponsored by Mrs. Francis Pickering Thomas; and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 31 January 1919 with Lieutenant Commander Harold A. Waddington in command.
Walker got underway on 20 February to rendezvous with transport George Washington as it returned from France with President Woodrow Wilson. Upon completion of this duty, the new destroyer returned to Boston, where she was soon assigned to Division 18, Destroyer Force. She proceeded to Newport, Rhode Island, and loaded her full allotment of torpedoes at the Naval Torpedo Station. She sailed for the West Indies on 6 March and, soon after her arrival in the Caribbean fell into the Fleet's regular schedule of exercises and maneuvers. Walker conducted tactical exercises off San Juan, Puerto Rico, and gunnery exercises out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into the late winter and early spring of 1919 before she headed north.
After steaming into New York harbor on 14 April, the destroyer was sent to her base at Newport, R.I. Early the next month, she supported the Navy's NC-boat transatlantic flights. Initially stationed at Trepassy Bay from 6 May to 8 May, she later operated at sea from the 10th to the 17th, serving as one of the chain of picket ships to provide the NC flying boats with position reports and bearings. When this mission was completed, she returned to Newport on the 20th.
...
Wikipedia