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U S NAVY 4th FLEET AT RECIFE - SHIP INDEX ATF ATR AV AVD AVP

5)AVD 4 CLEMSON



From the collection of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. By Darryl Baker. 


Specifications:


Displacement; 1,215 t. Length; 314' 4" Beam; 31' 8" Draft; 9' 10"


Speed; 33.3 kts.


Complement; 130


Boats; 4 LCP(L) landing craft.


Armament: Three single 4"/50 gun mounts, two single 40mm AA gun mounts, five single 20mm AA gun mounts, one depth charge track, four depth charge projectors.


Propulsion; geared turbines, 26,500 shp, two propellers


Laid Down, 11 May 1918, at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, VA.
Launched, 5 September 1918.
Commissioned, USS Clemson (Destroyer No. 186), 29 December 1919, LCDR. G. C. Dichman in command.
Reduced to Commissioned in Reserve, 13 June 1920.
Designated (DD-186) 17 July 1920.
Decommissioned, 30 June 1922.
Converted to Aircraft Tender (Small) (AVP-17), 16 November 1939.
Recommissioned, 12 July 1940.
Redesignated Seaplane Tender (Destroyer) (AVD-4), 6 August 1940.
Reverted to (DD-186), 1 December 1943.
Convert to a High-speed Transport and designated (APD-31), 17 July 1944
Reclassified AVP-17, 16 November 1939, and converted into a small aircraft tender, Clemson was recommissioned 12 July 1940.

On 6 August 1940, she was again reclassified, becoming AVD 4, and on 18 August reported to Commander, Aircraft, Scouting Force, Atlantic Fleet at Norfolk. From 29 August 1940 to 28 November 1941 she tended patrol planes in the Caribbean and at the Galapagos Islands. Clemson then sailed south arriving at Recife, Brazil, 06 December in order to service nine PBY-5 Catalinas which brought the first 150 Marines to guard the airfields at Belem, Natal and Recife.


She remained on the coast of Brazil until 22 January 1942 when she returned to the Galapagos Islands. For the next year the tender shuttled between there and the Caribbean as her services were required. She returned to Norfolk, Va., 2 March 1943 and then moved to Charleston S.C., for reconversion to a destroyer (although not reclassified DD-186 until 1 December 1943).


Decommissioned, 12 October 1945


USS Clemson sailing in the Atlantic 1942 October 1942. From the collection of the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum. Photo Darryl Baker/Robert Hurst. http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/pix1/0518604.jpg  


 

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