USS Meade, a 1109-ton Clemson class destroyer built at Squantum, Massachusetts, was commissioned in September 1919. She soon was sent to the Pacific Coast, where she operated until decommissioning at San Diego, California, in May 1922. Meade received the designation DD-274 in mid-1920. Following more than seventeen years in "red lead row", the now-elderly destroyer was brought back into active service by the outbreak of World War II in Europe. She recommissioned in December 1939 and served for much of the next year in the Atlantic. Late in November 1940, as part of the "destroyers for bases" arrangement between Great Britain and the United States, Meade was decommissioned and transferred to the Royal Navy. Renamed Ramsey, she operated in the North Atlantic for the remainder of the Second World War. Taken out of service at the end of June 1945, HMS Ramsey was scrapped in England in 1947.
USS Meade was named in honor of Rear Admiral Richard Worsam Meade (1837-1897), who served actively as an officer in the Navy from 1850 to 1895; and his brother, Brigadier General Robert Lemy Meade (1841-1910), who was on active duty as a U.S. Marine Corps officer from 1862 to 1906.
This page features all the views we have related to Meade (Destroyer # 274, later DD-274).
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 98465 USS Meade (Destroyer # 274) At Boston, Massachusetts, 10 September 1919. Panoramic photograph by J. Crosby, Naval Photographer, 11 Portland St., Boston, Mass. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Crosby Collection. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 42KB; 740 x 315 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 50180 USS Meade (Destroyer # 274) Photographed circa 1919. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 52KB; 740 x 450 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 49833 USS Meade (DD-274) At anchor off San Diego, California, circa 1920. Ship visible in the right distance is USS Ward (DD-139). Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 94KB; 740 x 480 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 69349 USS Meade (DD-274) In a harbor, circa the early 1920s. Courtesy of ESKC Joseph L. Aguillard, USNR, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 465 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 69516 Destroyer Division THIRTY-ONE Moored together off San Diego, California, circa 1922. Photographed by the Pier Studio, San Diego. These ships are (from left to right): USS Bailey (DD-269); USS Thornton (DD-270); USS Tingey (DD-272); USS Morris (DD-271); USS Swasey (DD-273) and USS Meade (DD-274). Courtesy of ESKC Joseph L. Aguillard, USNR, 1969. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 98029 "Old Hen and Chickens" USS Kanawha (AO-1) with thirteen destroyers alongside, off San Diego, California, during the early 1920s. Photographed by Bunnell, 414 E Street, San Diego. Ships present are identified in Photo # NH 98029 (complete caption). Collection of Chief Quartermaster John Harold, USN. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 465 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 42539 "Red Lead Row", San Diego Destroyer Base, California Photographed at the end of 1922, with at least 65 destroyers tied up there. Many of the ships present are identified in Photo # NH 42539 (complete caption). U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 159KB; 740 x 515 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 43161 Victory Destroyer Plant, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Squantum, Massachusetts Interior of the wet slips, photographed between 24 May and 21 July 1919 by Monks & Johnson, Boston, Mass. Ships whose bows are visible at right are (from front to rear): Meade (Destroyer # 274), Swasey (Destroyer # 273), Morris (Destroyer # 271), and Tingey (Destroyer # 272). Note ship components awaiting installation, and the security sign on the pole at right. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 43154 Victory Destroyer Plant, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Squantum, Massachusetts Interior of the building slips, photographed by Monks & Johnson, Boston, Massachusetts, between 27 April and 3 May 1919. The destroyers under construction in the foreground are, from the foreground: Meyer (Destroyer # 279, builder's # 359), Henshaw (Destroyer # 278, builder's # 358) and Moody (Destroyer # 277, builder's # 357). Beyond these three ships are at least three more, possibly McCawley (Destroyer # 276), Sinclair (Destroyer # 275) and Meade (Destroyer # 274). The unplated deck of Doyen (Destroyer # 280) is in the extreme right foreground. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 156KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
17 April 2003
Link added 15 June 2003