![]() USS Paducah (PG-18)
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History | |
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Name | Paducah |
Namesake | City of Paducah, Kentucky |
Builder | Gas Engine and Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, New York |
Laid down | 22 September 1903 |
Launched | 11 October 1904 |
Commissioned | 2 September 1905 |
Decommissioned | 2 March 1919 |
In service | 2 May 1922 |
Out of service | 7 September 1945 |
Renamed | Geula |
Stricken | 19 December 1946 |
Identification | Hull symbol: PG-18 |
Fate | Scrapped |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Dubuque-class gunboat |
Displacement | 1,237 tons |
Length | 200 ft (61 m) |
Beam | 35 ft (11 m) |
Draft | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | |
Complement |
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Armament |
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USS Paducah (PG-18) was a Dubuque-class gunboat acquired by the US Navy prior to World War I. Her task was to patrol, escort, and protect Navy ships.
Paducah (Gunboat No. 18/PG-18) was launched 11 October 1904, by Gas Engine and Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, New York; sponsored by Miss Anna May Yeiser; and commissioned 2 September 1905. She was reclassified AG–7 in 1919; IX–23, 24 April 1922; and PG–18, 4 November 1940.
After shakedown, Paducah joined the Caribbean Squadron early in 1906 to protect American lives and interests through patrols and port calls to Caribbean and Central American and South American cities. She patrolled Mexican waters in the aftermath of the Vera Cruz incident through the summer of 1914, then returned to her Caribbean operations, performing surveys from time to time.
Paducah was ordered north to prepare at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for European service in World War I, for which she sailed from New York 29 September 1917. She reached Gibraltar 27 October, and based there as convoy escort to North Africa, Italy, the Azores, and Madeira. She attacked a U-boat 9 September 1918 after it had sunk one of her convoy, and was credited with possibly damaging the submarine. Leaving Gibraltar 11 December, Paducah reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 7 January 1919 to decommission 2 March 1919.
She again recommissioned 16 August 1920 through 9 September 1921 for survey duty in the Caribbean. Paducah was commissioned a third time 2 May 1922 for duty training Naval Reservists in the 9th Naval District. She arrived Duluth, Minnesota, 20 June, replacing the USS Essex which then became a receiving ship. These training missions included regular two-week cruises, and gunnery practice on Lake Michigan. In addition to regular duties, the ship was used for miscellaneous ceremonial purposes, assisted in the fight against a fire on Isle Royale, and assisted with rescue work when the Mississippi River flooded.[2]
Paducah was modified in the early 1930s to run on oil-fired boilers. The triple expansion engines were installed, with boilers fore and aft. Additional modifications included hammock berthing on a new boat deck, and a sheltered main deck between the quarterdeck and the pilot house.[2]
Paducah returned to the U.S. East Coast in early 1941, and through World War II, trained Naval Armed Guard gunners in Chesapeake Bay, thus giving vital service to the Merchant Marine's crucial World War II assignment.