USS Ramsay

	USS Ramsay underway
History
United States
Name	Ramsay
Namesake	Francis Munroe Ramsay
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia
Laid down	21 December 1917
Launched	8 June 1918
Commissioned	15 February 1919
Decommissioned	30 June 1922
Identification	DD-124
Recommissioned	2 June 1930
Decommissioned	14 December 1937
Reclassified	DM-16 on 13 June 1930
Recommissioned	25 September 1939
Decommissioned	19 October 1945
Reclassified	AG-98, 5 June 1945
Stricken	13 November 1945
Fate	Sold for scrapping, 21 November 1946
General characteristics
Class and type	Wickes-class destroyer
Displacement	1,060 tons
Length	314 ft 5 in (95.8 m)
Beam	31 ft 0 in (9.4 m)
Draft	10 ft 3 in (3.1 m)
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h)
Complement	133 officers and enlisted
Armament	4 × 4 in (102 mm)/50 guns; 2 × 3 in (76 mm)/23 guns; 12 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes;

USS Ramsay (DD-124) was a

Rear Admiral Francis Ramsay

.

Construction and commissioning

Ramsay was

Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia. The ship was launched on 8 June 1918, sponsored by Miss Mary Virginia Ramsay, granddaughter of Rear Admiral Ramsay. The destroyer was commissioned

on 15 February 1919.

Service history

Assigned to Division 12, Destroyer Force,

East Coast and, on 6 July, put into Norfolk

to prepare for transfer to the Pacific.

Ramsay arrived at

decommissioned and berthed at San Diego as a unit of the Reserve Fleet. Recommissioned eight years later, on 2 June 1930, she was reclassified as a light minelayer, redesignated DM-16 on 13 June, and homeported at Pearl Harbor

. Converted at the Navy Yard there, she operated with Minecraft, Battle Force, primarily in the Hawaiian area until 1937 when she returned to San Diego for her second inactivation and was decommissioned on 14 December 1937. Recommissioned on 25 September 1939, she joined MinDiv 5, Minecraft, Battle Force, and for the next year conducted patrols engaged in gunnery drills and landing exercises, and trained naval reservists along the Pacific coast.

World War II

On 10 December 1940, Ramsay returned to Pearl Harbor and, throughout the next year, operated with Mine Divisions 5 and 2. Moored at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941, she fired her guns in combat for the first time at carrier-based planes delivering Japan's declaration of war on the United States.

Underway from the harbor before 0900, for offshore patrol, Ramsay made sound contact with a submarine at 1120. She released ten depth charges, and then watched an oil slick spread over the attack area. She had damaged, and possibly had sunk one of the midget submarines used by the Japanese in the attack. Eight days later, while escorting a merchant ship off Kauai, she made her second contact. During two runs over the enemy, she dropped her depth charges and again was rewarded by the appearance of an oil slick on the surface indicating damage to her quarry.

Into February 1942, Ramsay continued patrol escort services in the Hawaiian area. On 22 February, she got underway with TF 19 for

Pago Pago on 4 March, she planted defensive minefields off Tutuila and Apia, then shifted to Suva for mining activities among the Fiji Islands. On 3 May she steamed out of Suva for the New Hebrides and by 11 June had completed, with Montgomery, the Efate defensive minefields. The next day, she cleared Vila

harbor, and returned to Pearl Harbor on 3 July.

For the next two months, she again performed escort and patrol assignments in the Hawaiian Islands. Then, on 14 September, she sailed for the

Unalaska in the east to Attu

in the west.

On 17 September, Ramsay sailed south. Steaming via Pearl Harbor, she put into San Francisco on 4 October for another overhaul. Out of the shipyard by 20 December, she sailed west on 24 December. She joined ServRon 6 at Pearl Harbor on 2 January 1944, and on 21 January headed for the

Eniwetok

. In October, she served with the Submarine Training Force and, in November, returned to the Marshalls for escort and training duty off Majuro.

With the new year, 1945, Ramsay headed east and during February again worked with the Submarine Training Force. At the end of the month, she sailed for San Pedro, where, after overhaul, she was designated a miscellaneous auxiliary and was reclassified AG-98, effective 5 June. On 15 June, she once more got underway for Pearl Harbor, and for the next three months, she served as plane guard for aircraft carriers training in Hawaiian waters. On 24 September, she arrived back at San Pedro to await her third, and final, inactivation. She was decommissioned on 19 October 1945, struck from the Navy list on 13 November 1945; and sold for scrapping on 21 November 1946.

Awards

Ramsay earned three

battle stars

during World War II.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

NavSource Photos