USS Melville, a 7150-ton destroyer tender, was built at Camden, New Jersey. Commissioned in early December 1915, she was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. In May 1917, soon after the United States entered World War I, she steamed to Queenstown, Ireland, to provide base services for U.S. Navy destroyers conducting anti-submarine operations from that port. Melville returned to the U.S. in January 1919, nearly two months after the fighting ended. During the next half year she served off the U.S. East Coast, in the Caribbean, and in the Azores, where she supported the May 1919 trans-Atlantic flight of the Navy seaplane NC-4.
In July 1919 Melville was transferred to the Pacific Coast, but her arrival was delayed for three months by a boiler explosion that took the lives of five of her crew. Once repaired and on station at her new home port, San Diego, California, she began two decades of work maintaining the Fleet's destroyers. During this time the tender also served in Hawaii waters, the Caribbean and along the Atlantic Coast. After December 1940 Melville supported warships taking part in Neutrality Patrols and other "short of war" operations out of Norfolk, Virginia, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Bermuda.
After an absence of twenty-three years, in January 1942 Melville returned to the eastern Atlantic to support convoy escort ships. Initially based at Londonderry, Northern Ireland, she was later stationed at Iceland, Brazil, Scotland, England and the U.S. East Coast. Beginning in May 1944 she helped minesweepers and landing craft as they got ready for the June invasion of Normandy and the subsequent land campaign across northwestern Europe. In July 1945, following the German surrender, Melville went to New York, en route to a planned assignment to the Pacific. This was cancelled after Japan capitulated in mid-August and she spent most of the next year at Jacksonville, Florida, helping to lay up excess warships. Decommissioned at Norfolk, Virginia, in August 1946, USS Melville was stricken from the list of Navy ships in April 1947, transferred to the Maritime Commission in March 1948 and sold for scrapping in August of that year.
USS Melville was named in honor of Rear Admiral George W. Melville (1841-1912), a noted Arctic explorer and Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering from 1887 to 1903.
This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2, later AD-2).
For other images concerning this ship, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 804 USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2) Underway at 15.15 knots during run # 16 of her trials, 16 July 1915. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 104451 USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2) At anchor, circa 1916 or early 1917. The original photograph is printed on postcard stock. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 48KB; 740 x 480 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 104452 USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2) In drydock, circa 1916 or early 1917. The original photograph is printed on postcard stock. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 52KB; 455 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 46394 USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2) At Queenstown, Ireland, while serving as destroyer flotilla repair ship during World War I. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 500 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 43616 USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2) Moored at Queenstown, Ireland, 11 April 1918, while acting as "mother ship" for U.S. destroyers based there. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 84KB; 740 x 575 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 43615 USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2) Returning to the United States with the "Victory Fleet" on 15 April 1919, after target practice in Cuban waters. Location is probably New York Harbor. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 98936 USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2) In port, circa 1919. Courtesy of Jim Kazalis, 1981. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 450 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 1034 USS Melville (AD-2) Anchored in the Hudson River, near New York City, 2 May 1927. Note the line of barges beyond her. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 590 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 46399 USS Melville (AD-2) Seen from directly overhead while anchored in the Hudson River, near New York City, on 2 May 1927. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 590 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 105061-A USS Melville (AD-2) In the Panama Canal, 11 June 1927. She is approaching the Gatun Locks. Immediately beyond her is the S.S. Edwin Christenson (American Freighter, built in 1918 as S.S. West Wind). Cropped from Photo # NH 105061, a panoramic photograph by Goldbeck, National Photo Service, 737 East Houston Street, San Antonio, Texas. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image size: 69KB; 740 x 400 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 67845-A USS Melville (AD-2) Steams past Yerba Buena Island, in San Francisco Bay, California, circa 1930. Collection of Lieutenant Ralph F. Nourse, donated by Lieutenant Commander J.R. Bradley, 1961. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 485 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-411136 USS Melville (AD-2) Moored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 23 August 1940, as seen from an altitude of 800 feet. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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In addition to the images presented above and on this ship's other pages, the National Archives appears to hold further views of USS Melville (AD-2). The following list features some of these images:
The images listed below are NOT in
the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
USS Melville (AD-2) underway off San Diego, California, 11 April 1923. High aerial view taken from almost directly ahead, and a little to port. The ship is making dense smoke as she steams in the direction of the camera. USS Melville (AD-2) underway at sea, 19 April 1925. Starboard side (somewhat toward the bow) surface view. The ship has a large number "12" painted on her bow. USS Melville (AD-2) moored off San Diego, California, with six destroyers nested by her port side, circa 1930. Outboard destroyer is USS MacLeish (DD-220) Port bow aerial view, with the city in the background. USS Melville (AD-2) at her moorings, with four destroyers alongside, March 1938. The destroyers are (from inboard to outboard) USS Hovey (DD-208), USS Long (DD-209), USS Chandler (DD-206), and USS Southard (DD-207). Nearly bow-on surface view. USS Melville (AD-2) underway off the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, 28 December 1941 Starboard broadside surface view. The ship's hull is painted dark, with lighter upperworks. USS Melville (AD-2) underway off the U.S. East Coast, 21 November 1943. Photograph taken from a blimp of Squadron ZP-14, based at Naval Air Station Weeksville, North Carolina. Starboard broadside aerial view. The ship appears to be painted in Camouflage Measure 22 (dark to the lower point of the main deck; lighter above that).
Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions". |
For other images concerning this ship, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 20 November 2003
New image added 2 October 2007