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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Hamilton (AG 111)
ex-DMS-18
ex-DD-141



Call sign :
Nan - Fox - Baker - Queen

Call sign (1924):
Nan - Item - Fox - Love

ex-Destroyer No. 141

Wickes Class Destroyer/Dorsey Class Highspeed Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 8 June 1918 by the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA
  • Launched 15 January 1919
  • Commissioned USS Hamilton, Destroyer No. 141, 17 November 1919
  • Designated DD-141, 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned 20 July 1922 at San Diego, CA and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet
  • Recommissioned 20 January 1930
  • Reclassified and converted to a High Speed Minesweeper, DMS-18, 17 October 1940
  • Reclassified as a Miscellaneous Auxiliary, AG-111, 6 May 1945
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists reclassification to AG-111 as June 1945
  • Decommissioned 16 October 1945 at San Diego
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 November 1945
  • Sold for scrap 21 November 1946 to Hugo New of New York, NY.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,090 t.
  • Length 314' 5"
  • Beam 31' 4"
  • Draft 11' 4"
  • Speed 32.5 kts.
  • Complement 149
  • Armament: Three 3"/50 dual purpose mounts and one twin 40mm mount
  • Propulsion: Three Normand boilers, two 26,000shp New York Shipbuilding Co. (Parsons design) turbines, Mare Island Navy Yard single reduction gears, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Hamilton (DD 141)
    Hamilton 144k The Hamilton (DD-141) during June or July 1940, newly reconfigured for active tank stabilization system trials. The small deckhouses on either side of the main deck between the bridge structure and the forward most remaining funnel contained equipment for an experimental Sperry gyroscopic autoPilot; below them in the former boiler room number 1 were the tanks, pumps, and ducting for the Minorski stabilization system.
    Mariners' Museum photo from the December 2004 edition of Naval History magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    USS Hamilton (DMS 18)
    Palmer 126k Mine Division NINETEEN (MINDIV 19) plaque. MINDIV 19 consisted of Palmer (DMS 5), Hogan (DMS 6), Howard (DMS 7), Stansbury (DMS 8) and Hamilton
    From the collection of CAPT R. Roy Sampson    		 Bob Sampson
    Hamilton 105k The Hamilton (DMS-18) displays her unique funnel configuration on 20 September 1942 after completing a short refit at Norfolk Navy Yard, where her four 4-inch/50-cal. low-angle guns were replaced by dual-purpose 3-inch/50-cal. mountings. The ship retained the armament of four 3-inch guns, five 20-mm antiaircraft guns, two depth charge racks, and two depth charge mortars for the remainder of her career. While attached to the Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island during the mid-1930s, the Hamilton had had the forward 4-inch gun temporarily replaced by a fifth triple torpedo tube mounting; two of the four normal triple sets were removed late in 1940 and the others during her minesweeper conversion
    U.S. Navy photo from the December 2004 edition of Naval History magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    Hamilton 96k Hamilton minesweeping on the morning of 17 February 1945 prior to the UDT operation at Iwo Jima.
    National Archives photo    		 Bill Brinkley
    Hamilton 108k
    Hamilton 112k
    Hamilton 101k
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Robert Grimes Cowan, USN7 November 1919
    02LCDR George Hudson Fort, USN - Retired as Vice Admiral20 January 1930
    03LCDR Clarence Gulbranson, USN14 June 1931
    04LCDR Arthur Elliot Bartlett, USN1934
    05LCDR Lester Milburn Harvey, USN1936
    06LCDR Thomas Cockey Evans, USN1939 - July 1940
    07LCDR Harold Oscar (Swede) Larson, USNJuly 1940 - 19 June 1942
    08LCDR Robert Roy Sampson, USN - USNA Class of 1931
    Awarded the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit - Retired as Captain    		19 June 1942 - 30 June 1944
    09LCDR John Clague, USN30 June 1944
    10LT Lyle Howard Turner, USN13 July 1945 - 16 October 1945
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the Hamilton (DMS-18)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    NavSource Destroyer Pages, USS Hamilton (DD-141)
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the High Speed Minesweeper (DMS) Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Ship Index Back to the Miscellaneous Auxiliary (AG) Ship Index
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