 USSMoody in port sometime between 1920 and 1922 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSMoody |
| Namesake | William Henry Moody |
| Builder | Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation,Squantum Victory Yard,Quincy,Massachusetts |
| Laid down | 9 December 1918 |
| Launched | 28 June 1919 |
| Commissioned | 10 December 1919 |
| Decommissioned | 15 June 1922 |
| Recommissioned | 27 September 1923 |
| Decommissioned | 2 June 1930 |
| Stricken | 3 November 1930 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap 10 June 1931; resold toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer for use in the 1933 filmHell Below in which it was sunk 21 February 1933 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Clemson-classdestroyer |
| Displacement | 1,308 tons |
| Length | 314 ft 3 in (95.78 m) |
| Beam | 30 ft 11 in (9.42 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft 4 in (2.84 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h) |
| Range | |
| Complement | 122 officers and enlisted |
| Armament | 4 ×4 in (100 mm) guns, 1 ×3 in (76 mm) gun, 12 ×21 inch (533 mm)torpedo tubes |
USSMoody (DD-277) was aClemson-classdestroyer in theUnited States Navy in commission from 1919 to 1922 and from 1923 to 1930. She was named forSecretary of the Navy (and futureSupreme Court Justice}William Henry Moody.
Moody waslaid down on 9 December 1918 atSquantum Victory Yard of theBethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation atQuincy,Massachusetts, andlaunched on 28 June 1919. She wascommissioned on 10 December 1919.
Assigned to theUnited States Pacific Fleet,Moody departedBoston,Massachusetts, on 9 February 1920, loadedtorpedoes and ammunition atNewport,Rhode Island, and steamed viaNew York City,Guantanamo Bay,Cuba, and thePanama Canal to theUnited States West Coast, arriving atSan Diego,California, on the 31st.[clarification needed] She operated along the California coast through June 1920, and then departedSan Francisco,California, on 1 July 1920 forWashington, where on 10 July 1920 she joined the cruise ofUnited States Secretary of the NavyJosephus Daniels,United States Secretary of the InteriorJohn B. Payne, andAdmiralHugh Rodman, Commander of the Pacific Fleet, toAlaska. On an inspection tour of Alaskan coal and oil fields and looking for possible fleet anchorages, the cruise touched at nine ports includingSitka andJuneau, and lasted for nearly a month.Moody returned to San Diego on 31 August 1920 to operate off the California coast in training and in battle exercises for two months. She put into San Diego on 10 October 1920, remaining there anddecommissioning on 15 June 1922.
Moody recommissioned on 27 September 1923. Assigned to Destroyer Squadrons,Battle Fleet, the ship operated along the U.S. West Coast for the next 19 months, and then on 27 May 1925 departedBremerton, Washington, for fleet exercises in theHawaiian Islands. After operating fromPearl Harbor onOahu andLahaina Roads offMaui for a month, she departed Pearl Harbor on 1 July 1925 for theSouth Pacific Ocean, stopped atPago Pago,American Samoa, and then made good will visits toMelbourne,Australia, andDunedin andWellington,New Zealand. Returning viaHonolulu, Hawaii, to San Diego on 26 September 1925,Moody resumed operations along the U.S. West Coast operations into 1927, and made a voyage toPanama between February and April 1926.
On 17 February 1927,Moody departed San Diego for tactical maneuvers with theUnited States Fleet in theCaribbean. Proceeding through the Panama Canal on 4 March 1927, she arrived at Guantanamo Bay on 18 March 1927 and operated out of that port andGonaïves,Haiti, onFleet Problem VII, a naval exercise involving the defense of the Panama Canal, until 22 April 1927. She then proceeded to New York City for repairs. She departed New York City on 16 May 1927 and arrived at San Diego on 25 June 1927.
Moody remained in service with the Battle Fleet through mid-1929. From April to June 1928, she made another cruise to Hawaii with the fleet for the extensive exercises of Fleet Problem VIII, a naval exercise held between California and Hawaii. She steamed toMexico andPanama in early 1929 and then in July 1929 cruised to thePacific Northwest, traveling as far north asKetchikan, Alaska.
Moody decommissioned at San Diego on 2 June 1930 and was towed toMare Island Navy Yard atVallejo, California, arriving there on 8 June 1930. She was struck from theNaval Vessel Register on 3 November 1930 in accordance with naval arms limitations imposed under theLondon Naval Treaty.
Most ofMoody′ssuperstructure was sold as scrap metal on 10 June 1931. The rest of the ship was sold toMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer for aboutUS$35,000 for use in filming the 1933World War Isubmarine movieHell Below. The movie studio altered her appearance to resemble that of a World War IAustro-Hungarian Navy minelayer and hired the marine salvage and construction firmMerritt-Chapman & Scott to place charges ofdynamite aboard her at carefully planned locations.Moody was towed to a point in the Pacific Ocean offSan Pedro, California, and on the afternoon of 21 February 1933, the first charge was detonated, splittingMoody between two watertight compartments so she continued to float after breaking up. Then two other detonations breached the watertight bulkheads, sinking her later that evening. The explosions and sinkings were filmed for use in a scene inHell Below depicting the sinking of an Austro-Hungarian minelayer by torpedoes from the fictional U.S. Navysubmarine USSAL-14, portrayed in the movie byUSS S-31 (SS-136).
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1933 | |
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