USS Gridley (DD-92)-- Part 2: Aided the First Transatlantic Seaplane Flight

The Gridley was launched by Union Ironworks of San Francisco, California , om 4 July 1918, sponsored by Mrs. Francis P. Thomas, daughter of Captain  Charles Vernon Gridley, for whom the vessel was named.  (Find-a-Grave lists just one daughter, Katherine V. Gridley Buddy (1873-1957).

After fitting out at Mare Island Navy Yard, she departed San Diego on  14 March 1919, and transited the Panama Canal for maneuvers in Cuban waters then to Norfolk, Virginia, for repairs and then to New York City on 22 April 1919.

Its first assignment was with a group of destroyers posted along the route of the Navy's first transatlantic seaplane flight.  The Gridley and other destroyers used smoke and flares to guide the intrepid flyers and with the help of other surface ships, the N4 was successfully able to fly across the Atlantic and land in the Azores on 17 March  1919.

--Cooter

USS Gridley (DD-92)-- Part 1

Last month's featured U.S. warship was the USS Gridley (DDG-101).  There were  three other USS Gridleys in the Navy.

They were all named after Charles V. Gridley of USS Olympia/Dewey "You may fire when ready, Gridley" fame.  I have also written a lot about him in this blog and my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog.

This was the first of the four USS Gridleys.

From Wikipedia. 

The first Gridley was a Wickes-class destroyer commissioned after World War I.  Ships of this class were often called Four Stackers for the four smokestacks on each one.

It was launched  4 July 1918 and commissioned 8 March 1919.  Decommissioned  22 June 1922 and sold for scrap  19 April 1939.

315 feet long, 

 31 foot beam,  four 4-inch guns and  twelve 21-inch torpedo tubes.

--Cooter