USS Hamilton (DD-141) - Service History

Service History

Based at San Diego, Hamilton participated in battle practice and maneuvers along the California coast with Destroyer Squadron 17. In the summer of 1920 she also took part in torpedo and smoke screen operations in Hawaii. Battle practice and other readiness operations ranging across the Pacific to Hawaii continued until Hamilton decommissioned at San Diego 20 July 1922.

Hamilton recommissioned 20 January 1930 and, after shakedown, reached her new home port, Norfolk, 26 November. She served with the Scouting Force, operating along the East Coast throughout 1931, and then returned to San Diego in January 1932. After a year of plane guard duty and battle exercises along the California coast, Hamilton again shifted to the East Coast, reaching Norfolk 29 January 1933. Based at Newport, Rhode Island, she served with the Scouting Force in local operations and exercises until 1939. When war broke in Europe in the fall of that year, Hamilton joined other four-stackers on the Grand Banks Patrol, which sent American ships as far north as Iceland and Greenland to protect their own and neutral shipping. Hamilton continued this duty until converted to a fast minesweeper in June 1941. Reclassified DMS-18 on 17 October 1941, she resumed patrol duty along the East Coast and into the North Atlantic.