USS Boggs (DD-136) at sea, 1936
|
|
USS Boggs (DD-136/ DMS-3) was a Wickes class destroyer that spent most of the interwar years on experimental duties, before serving as a minesweeper in the Pacific from 1940 to 1944.
The Boggs was named after Charles Stuart Boggs, a US naval officer during the Mexican War and American Civil War, who retired with the rank of Rear Admiral.
The Boggs was laid down on 15 November 1917 at Mare Island Navy Yard, launched on 25 April 1918 and commissioned on 23 September 1918. She served off the US West Coast from then until March 1919, so didn't enter any of the active war zones of the First World War. She then moved to the East Coast, where she helped support the first successful trans-Atlantic flight, by the Navy Curtiss flying boat NC-4 in May 1919. She was posted off the coast of Newfoundland as a navigation aide and rescue ship. She also operated in the North Atlantic and the West Indies. This lasted until the autumn of 1920 when she returned to the west coast, and her base at San Diego. She operated with the fleet until she was decommissioned on 27 June 1922.
The Boggs was recommissioned on 19 December 1931, this time as the radio-controlled target ship AG-19. She joined Mobile Target Division 1, Destroyers, Battle Force, and spent the next nine years taking part in high speed radio control tests, towing gunnery targets and minesweeping. She spent most of this period off the West Coast, but visited the West Indies and the East Coast in 1934 and the winter of 1938-1939, and visited Pearl Harbor in 1936.
In September 1940 the Boggs took part in the general fleet move to Hawaii, and by 1941 was based at Pearl Harbor. On 19 November 1940 she was redesignated as the high speed minesweeper DMS-3, but she continued to operate as a target tug as well. Late in 1941 she underwent a major overhaul at Mare Island.
The Boggs was at see off Oahu when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and she quickly returned to port to sweep for mines. The US entry into the war didn't actually alter her routine that much, and she spent most of the period between then and April 1944 carrying out her normal mix of target towing and mine sweeping duties, with some patrol and escort missions added. On 31 Junary 1943 she departed from Pearl Harbor, heading for Palmyra, where she was based for one month. During this time she carried out one round trip to Canton Island, before returning to Pearl Harbor on 2 March.
In the spring of 1944 she was ordered back to the West Coast, and on 4 April she reached San Francisco, where she continued with her target towing duties. On 5 June 1945 she became AG-19 once again. Soon afterwards she returned to Pearl Harbor. She then moved closer to the war zone, and was based at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands from mid-August until 6 October 1945.
After returning to Pearl Harbor in October 1945, she moved to Philadelphia, arriving on 11 February 1946. She was decommissioned on 20 March 1945 and sold for scrap on 27 November 1946.
Displacement (standard) |
1,160t (design) |
Displacement (loaded) |
|
Top Speed |
35kts (design) |
Engine |
2 shaft Parsons turbines |
Range |
3,800nm at 15kts on trial (Wickes) |
Armour - belt |
|
- deck |
|
Length |
314ft 4in |
Width |
30ft 11in |
Armaments (as built) |
Four 4in/50 guns |
Crew complement |
114 |
Launched |
|
Commissioned |
|
|
|
U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History, Norman Friedmann .
The standard history of the development of American destroyers, from the earliest torpedo boat destroyers to the post-war fleet, and covering the massive classes of destroyers built for both World Wars. Gives the reader a good understanding of the debates that surrounded each class of destroyer and led to their individual features.
