USS Hart (DD-110)
dressed with flags, 1920
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USS Hart (DD-110/ DM-8) was a Wickes class destroyer that operated in the Far East during the 1920s.
The Hart was named after Midshipman Ezekiel B. Hat, who was killed on Lake Ontario in 1814 and Lt. Commander John E. Hart, who served in the Gulf of Mexico during the American Civil War.
The Hart was launched at the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, on 4 July 1918 and commissioned on 26 May 1919, with Commander Harold Jones in command. This was an unusually long gap for a Wickes class destroyer, and shows how the urgency went out of the construction programme as the First World War came to an end.
The Hart joined the Destroyer Force and operated off California from 1919 to the summer of 1920. On 17 July 1920 she was reclassified as a minelayer, DM-8. The mine laying equipment was installed at the Mare Island Navy Yard, and she was then allocated to the Mine Detachment, Asiatic Fleet. She departed for the Philippines in November 1920, and spent the next decade operating around the Philippines and in Chinese waters.
Some of her men took part in the American intervention at Shanghai in June-July 1925 (in the aftermath of strikes and demonstrations triggered after Shanghai Municipal Police officers opened fire on Chinese protestors in the International Settlement), and those who landed qualified for the Shanghai Expeditionary Medal.
The Hart also operated in the Yangtze, and those who served on her between 1 October-1 December 1927, 19 December 1926-9 January 1927, 25 May-4 August 1927 or 11-17 October 1927 qualified for the Yangtze Service Medal.
The Hart left Manila to be recommissioned on 12 December 1930. She reached San Diego on 24 January 1931 and was decommissioned on 1 June 1931. She was struck off the Navy List on 11 November and sold for scrap on 25 February 1932, to satisfy the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
Displacement (standard) |
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Displacement (loaded) |
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Top Speed |
35kts design |
Engine |
2 shaft Parsons turbines |
Range |
2,500nm at 20kts (design) |
Armour - belt |
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- deck |
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Length |
314ft 4.5in |
Width |
30ft 11.5in |
Armaments |
Four 4in/ 50 guns |
Crew complement |
100 |
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.
