 USSCrowninshield | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSCrowninshield |
| Builder | Bath Iron Works |
| Laid down | 5 November 1918 |
| Launched | 24 July 1919 |
| Commissioned | 6 August 1919 |
| Decommissioned | 7 July 1922 |
| Recommissioned | 12 May 1930 |
| Decommissioned | 8 April 1937 |
| Recommissioned | 30 September 1939 |
| Decommissioned | 9 September 1940 |
| Stricken | 8 January 1941 |
| Fate | Transferred to UK, 9 September 1940 |
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMSChelsea |
| Commissioned | 9 September 1940 |
| Identification | I35 |
| Fate | Transferred to USSR, 16 July 1944 |
| Notes | Transferred toRoyal Canadian Navy November 1942; returned byCanada 26 December 1943 |
| Canada | |
| Name | HMCSChelsea |
| Acquired | November 1942 |
| Fate | Returned toUnited Kingdom, 26 December 1943 |
 Soviet Union | |
| Name | Derzky (Дерзкий / Insolent) |
| Acquired | 16 July 1944 |
| Fate | Returned to UK for scrapping, 23 June 1949 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Wickes-classdestroyer |
| Displacement | 1,090 tons |
| Length | 314 ft 5 in (95.83 m) |
| Beam | 31 ft 8 in (9.65 m) |
| Draft | 8 ft 8 in (2.64 m) |
| Speed | 35 kn (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
| Complement | 100 officers and enlisted |
| Armament | |
USSCrowninshield (DD-134) was aWickes-classdestroyer in theUnited States Navy betweenWorld War I andWorld War II. She was named forBenjamin Williams Crowninshield. InWorld War II she was transferred to theRoyal Navy where she was namedHMSChelsea, and subsequently to theSoviet Navy where she was namedDerzky.[note 1]
Crowninshield waslaunched 24 July 1919 byBath Iron Works,Bath, Maine; sponsored by Emily Crowninshield Davis, great-great-granddaughter ofBenjamin Williams Crowninshield. The ship wascommissioned on 6 August 1919 and reported to theAtlantic Fleet.[1]
Crowninshield cruised along the Atlantic coast and in theCaribbean, participating in 1921 in the fleet concentration in thePanama Canal Zone andCuban waters. During this exercise she carriedSecretary of the NavyJosephus Daniels fromKey West toGuantanamo Bay for fleet maneuvers. From 14 November 1921Crowninshield operated with 50 percent of her complement until placed out of commission in reserve atPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania 7 July 1922.[1]
Recommissioned 12 May 1930,Crowninshield arrived atSan Diego, California 4 April 1931 to join theBattle Force. She took part in fleet problems and exercises on the west coast, inHawaiian and Caribbean waters; operated with Aircraft, Battle Force; conducted practice cruises toCanadian andAlaskan ports for members of theNaval Reserve; and spent from 15 July to 17 December 1934 in the Rotating Reserve. She was at San Diego between 30 October and 2 November 1935, for thePresidential Fleet Review and attended the ceremonies opening theSan Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in November 1936.Crowninshield wasdecommissioned at San Diego on 8 April 1937.[1]
Recommissioned on 30 September 1939,Crowninshield sailed fromMare Island 25 November and arrived atGuantanamo Bay, Cuba on 10 December for duty with theNeutrality Patrol in the Caribbean andGulf of Mexico. On 9 September 1940 she was decommissioned atHalifax (former city), Nova Scotia, and was delivered toBritish authorities in theland bases for destroyers exchange. She was commissioned in theRoyal Navy as HMSChelsea the same day.[1]
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Chelsea reachedDevonport,England, 28 September 1940. Assigned to the Sixth Escort Group, Western Approaches Command,Liverpool, for Atlantic convoy duty, she fought the double-menacesubmarine and air attacks on vital supplies. On 6 April 1941 she rescued 29 survivors of SSOlga S. which had been sunk by an air attack.[1]Chelsea was modified for trade convoy escort service by removal of three of the original4"/50 caliber guns and one of the tripletorpedo tube mounts to reduce topside weight for additionaldepth charge stowage and installation ofhedgehog.[2]
Chelsea joinedArbutus on 5 February 1942 to hunt for a submarine sighted from their convoy. Two hours laterArbutus was torpedoed.Chelsea opened fire on the surfaced submarine and made three depth charge attacks after she dived but contact was lost and she returned to pick up the survivors fromArbutus.[1]
In November 1942Chelsea was lent to theRoyal Canadian Navy and until the end of 1943 operated in the mid and western Atlantic Ocean escorting convoys to and from Great Britain. She returned toDerry,Northern Ireland, 26 December 1943 and early in 1944 was reduced to reserve on theTyne. On 16 July 1944 she was transferred toRussia and renamedDerzky[1] (rus. Дерзкий, "Insolent").[note 2]
Derzky was one of eightTown-class destroyers transferred to the Soviet Navy in lieu ofItalian vesselssurrendered in September 1943 and claimed by the Soviet Union aswar reparations in May 1944. She sailed forMurmansk and was commissioned into theNorthern Fleet. There she served as local convoy escort for the remainder of hostilities.[3]
In 1949 she was transferred back to the Royal Navy, but was scrapped without re-commissioning.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
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