History | |
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Name: | Truxtun |
Namesake: | Commodore Thomas Truxtun awarded Congressional Gold Medal |
Builder: | Maryland Steel Company Sparrows Point, Maryland |
Laid down: | 13 November 1899 |
Launched: | 15 August 1901 |
Sponsored by: | Miss Isabelle Truxtun, grand daughter of Commodore Tuxtun |
Commissioned: | 11 September 1902 |
Decommissioned: | 18 July 1919 |
Struck: | 15 September 1919 |
Identification: | Hull symbol:DD-14 |
Fate: | sold January 3, 1920 into the merchant service as banana carrier |
Status: | later scrapped |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Truxtun-class destroyer |
Displacement: | 433 long tons (440 t) normal, 605 long tons (615 t) full load |
Length: | 259 ft 6 in (79.10 m) |
Beam: | 23 ft 3 in (7.09 m) |
Draft: | 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: | 29.6 kn (34.1 mph; 54.8 km/h) |
Complement: |
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Armament: |
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The second USS Truxtun (DD-14) was the lead ship of Truxtun-class destroyers in the United States Navy. She was named for Commodore Thomas Truxtun.
Truxtun was laid down on 13 November 1899 at Sparrows Point, Maryland, by the Maryland Steel Company; launched on 15 August 1901; sponsored by Miss Isabelle Truxtun; and commissioned on 11 September 1902, Lieutenant Archibald H. Davis in command.
Upon commissioning, Truxtun was assigned to the 2nd Torpedo Flotilla, and her commanding officer was appointed commander of the flotilla. She conducted trials out of Norfolk until 14 January 1903 and received her final acceptance on 24 April. In August, she participated in maneuvers off Frenchman Bay, Maine, in the Presidential review by Theodore Roosevelt at Oyster Bay, and in a joint Army-Navy exercise off Portland, Maine.
On 26 September, the 2nd Torpedo Flotilla became a unit of the Coast Squadron, North Atlantic Fleet. Truxtun joined that squadron in target practice off the Massachusetts coast before returning to Norfolk later that fall for repairs.
For the next four years, Truxtun operated along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean. In December 1907, she and five other destroyers assembled in Hampton Roads with the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. President Roosevelt reviewed the fleet once more and then, this "Great White Fleet" passed between Capes Charles and Henry to embark upon its famous round-the-world voyage. Truxtun escorted the fleet on the first leg of its voyage, going as far as the west coast. Along the way, she visited ports in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Panama, and Mexico. The fleet reached San Francisco in May 1908, and the destroyers were detached and reassigned to the Pacific Torpedo Fleet, an organization not administratively assigned to the Pacific Fleet. After repairs at Mare Island Navy Yard that summer, Truxtun joined her sister destroyers in a training voyage to Hawaii and Samoa. She returned to the west coast at San Diego, her new base of operations, early in December. She began her duty along the Pacific coast of North America with a voyage to Alaskan waters, visiting Seattle, Sitka, Seward, Skagway, and Juneau.