USS Williams (DD-108)
| Career | 
|
|---|---|
| Laid down: | 25 March 1918 |
| Launched: | 4 July 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 1 March 1919 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 June 1922 |
| Commissioned: | 6 November 1939 |
| Decommissioned: | 24 September 1940 |
| Fate: | Transferred to the Royal Navy, as St. Clair |
| Struck: | 8 January 1941 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1191 tons |
| Length: | 314 ft 5 in |
| Beam: | 31 ft 9 in |
| Draft: | 9 ft 2 in |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 35 knots |
| Complement: | 122 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 4 4"; 12 21" tt. |
The second USS Williams (DD-108) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named in honor of John Foster Williams.
Williams was laid down on 25 March 1918 at San Francisco, California, by the Union Iron Works plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 4 July 1918; sponsored by Mrs. H. G. Leopold, the wife of Comdr. H. G. Leopold; and commissioned on 1 March 1919 at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, Comdr. Matthias E. Manly in command.
Following shakedown, Williams and Belknap (Destroyer No. 251) departed Newport, Rhode Island, on 5 June 1919, bound for the Azores. Arriving at Ponta Delgada on the 11th, Williams proceeded to Gibraltar, where she picked up information pertaining to minefields still extant in the Adriatic, for delivery to the Commander, Naval Forces, Eastern Mediterranean. The destroyer's brief tour of duty in this area of the world took her to Spalato, Yugoslavia; Gallipoli, in the Dardanelles; and Trieste, Italy, where she operated as part of the American naval forces keeping watch on the tense local situations there in the aftermath of the World War.
After returning to the United States—via Spalato and Gibraltar—and arriving at New York City on 1 August 1919, Williams was eventually assigned to the Pacific Fleet. Classified DD-108 on 17 July 1920, the destroyer operated out of San Diego until decommissioned there on 7 June 1922 and placed in reserve.
The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 began hostilities in Europe, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately declared America's neutrality. To augment the fleet units already engaged in the Neutrality Patrol hurriedly placed off the eastern seaboard and gulf coast of the United States, the Navy recommissioned 77 destroyers and light minelayers.
Williams was accordingly placed in commission at San Diego on 6 November 1939, Lt. Comdr. Louis N. Miller in command. Following a refit at Mare Island, the destroyer operated in the San Diego area until sailing for Panama on 5 February. Transiting the Panama Canal on the 16th, she lay at Balboa for a brief time. During her stay there, the destroyer "manned the rail" in honor of President Roosevelt, who was then engaged in an informal inspection of the Canal Zone's defenses. Underway soon thereafter, Williams arrived at the Naval Operating Base (NOB), Key West, Florida, on 27 February.
Over the ensuing months, Williams operated with the Atlantic Squadron of the fleet, conducting neutrality patrols as well as training cruises. While conducting her scheduled operations from Key West, the destroyer took part in short-range battle practices and ship-handling drills, while keeping a weather eye on shipping in her vicinity. In March, she conducted an astronomical survey in the Bahamas.
On 9 April, Williams transported a survey party to Palmetto Island in the British West Indies before shifting to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After moving back to Key West for a time, Williams departed Florida's waters on 2 June and arrived at New York on 4 June. She conducted two training cruises for embarked [[United States Naval ReserveNaval Reserve contingents, which kept her busy into the late summer of 1940. After a final refit at the Boston Navy Yard, she departed Charlestown, Mass., on 18 September, bound for Canadian waters; and reached Halifax, Nova Scotia, two days later.
As one of the 50 flush-deck destroyers transferred to the British under lend-lease in return for leases on important base sites in the Western Hemisphere— Williams was selected as one of the six units slated for the Royal Canadian Navy. Soon after her arrival at Halifax on 20 September 1940, she got underway for a brief familiarization cruise for the Canadian crewmen. Williams was decommissioned and turned over to the Canadian government on 24 September; her name was subsequently struck from the Navy list on 8 January 1941.
See HMCS St. Clair for information about her career in the Canadian Navy.
See USS Williams for other ships of the same name.
External links
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
