USS Walker (DD-163)
_at_Boston,_Massachusetts_(USA),_on_1_February_1919_(NH_99161).jpg) USS Walker at Boston on 1 February 1919
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Walker |
| Namesake | John Grimes Walker |
| Builder | Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts |
| Laid down | 19 June 1918 |
| Launched | 14 September 1918 |
| Commissioned | 31 January 1919 |
| Decommissioned | 7 June 1922 |
| Reclassified |
|
| Stricken | 24 June 1942 |
| Fate | Scuttled, 28 December 1941 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Wickes-class destroyer |
| Displacement | 1,284 tons |
| Length | 314 ft 4+1⁄2 in (95.8 m) |
| Beam | 30 ft 11 in (9.4 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft 2 in (2.8 m) |
| Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h) |
| Complement | 101 officers and enlisted |
| Armament |
|
The first USS Walker (DD-163) was a Wickes-class destroyer that saw service in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named for Admiral John Grimes Walker.
History
Walker was
Walker got underway on 20 February to rendezvous with the transport
After steaming into
Her next port of call was Annapolis, Maryland, in early June for a two-day visit during Naval Academy graduation exercises, after which Walker headed south and transited the Panama Canal on 24 July. She called briefly at Acapulco, Mexico, for two days before steaming for southern California, arriving at Coronado on 8 August.
Based at
After 16 years in reserve the ship was struck from the Navy list on 28 March 1938 and slated for disposal by sale. Logistics requirements of U.S. West Coast naval districts, however, resulted in the former destroyer being placed back on the list and earmarked for conversion to a water barge. Redesignated YW-57 on 1 April 1939, the ship was undergoing conversion at the Mare Island Navy Yard when the Navy again decided to change the vessel's role. With the outbreak of war in Europe and the possibility of American involvement in the conflict, the ship was slated for use as a
Fate
Designated as the damage control hulk DCH-1 on 11 July 1940, the vessel was based at the Destroyer Base, San Diego, and used for training exercises in formulating and evolving new damage control techniques. In the following year, as the Pacific Fleet's base had been moved from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, plans were made to tow DCH-1 (which had been stripped of propulsion machinery during the initial conversion work to YW-57) to the Hawaiian Islands. She was re-designated as IX-44 on 17 February 1941. On 28 December 1941, while being towed from San Diego, California, to Pearl Harbor, by the oiler USS Neches, DCH-1 was cast adrift and scuttled by gunfire from Neches at 26°35′N 143°49′W / 26.583°N 143.817°W.[1][2]
Fiction
USS Walker was used in the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. In the books, Walker and her sister ship USS Mahan are pursued by superior Japanese naval forces after the Battle of the Java Sea and seek refuge in a squall. The squall transports Walker and Mahan to an alternate earth, one where a different evolutionary path occurred. Anderson also uses other decommissioned ships in the series: USS S-19 and the Japanese battlecruiser Amagi.
Walker also appears in the seventh mission of the campaign of the video game
References
- ^ http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/ships-ix.html IX 44
- ^ http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-Chron/USN-Chron-1941.html under date Dec 7, Sun - which is the incorrect date.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in December 1941 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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