USS Mullany (DD-325)

USS Mullany (DD-325) was a Clemson class destroyer that served with the Pacific Fleet during the 1920s before being scrapped because of her badly worn boilers.

The Mullany was named after Robert Madison Mullany, who served in the Mexican War and with the North Atlantic and West Gulf Blockading Squadrons during the Civil War.

USS Mullany (DD-325) passes the battle fleet

The Mullany was laid down by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corps at San Francisco on 3 June 1919, launched on 9 July 1920 when she was sponsored by Miss Alice Lee Hall and commissioned on 29 March 1921.

In October 1920 the Marcus, Mervine, Chase, Robert Smith and Mullany were allocated to Destroyer Division 45, part of Destroyer Squadron 13 of Flotilla No.2. However in the following year this was renumbered as Destroyer Division 35.

The Mullany spent most of July and August 1922 operating with the Battle Fleet in the waters around Puget Sound, before returning to San Diego late in August.

At the start of September 1923 Destroyer Division 35 (Marcus, Mervine, Selfridge, Mullany and Chase) visited Humboldt Bay in Northern California, to take part in the convention of the American Legion, which was taking part in Eureka, the largest community on the bay. 

The Mullany probably didn’t take part in Fleet Problem V of March-April 1925, but did leave San Francisco on 15 April 1925 to move to Hawaii for joint Army-Navy exercises. She then took part in a massive good will cruise in the south Pacific, visiting Samoa, Australia and New Zealand. 

In May 1927 the 35th Destroyer Division was ordered to Nicaraguan waters, but the Chase, Marcus and Mullany were sent their regular overhaul instead.

USS Mullany (DD-325) with a battle practice target

In the summer of 1928 she was part of Destroyer Division 35 (Marcus, Mervine, Mullany, Selfridge, Chase and Robert Smith). This division was used to take naval reservists from southern California on a training cruise to Honolulu and back, then in late July departed from Puget Sound to join the battle fleet which was carrying out manoeuvres in northern waters.

By now it was clear that the Mullany’s Yarrow boilers were badly worn. The US Navy decided to swap thirty four of the badly worn destroyers for almost fresh sister-ships that had been in the reserves for most of the 1920s. The Mullany was decommissioned at San Diego on 1 May 1930 and sold for scrap on 19 March 1931, helping to fulfil the terms of the London Naval Treaty.

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.

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