USS Paducah (PG-18)
History
United States
NamePaducah
NamesakeCity of Paducah, Kentucky
BuilderGas Engine and Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, New York
Laid down22 September 1903
Launched11 October 1904
Commissioned2 September 1905
Decommissioned2 March 1919
In service2 May 1922
Out of service7 September 1945
RenamedGeula
Stricken19 December 1946
IdentificationHull symbol: PG-18
FateScrapped
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeDubuque-class gunboat
Displacement1,237 tons
Length200 ft (61 m)
Beam35 ft (11 m)
Draft12 ft (3.7 m)
Propulsion
  • 2 × 500ihp Gas Engine Power Co. vertical triple-expansion engines
  • 2 × 623.5ihp vertical triple-expansion engines (1921)
Speed
  • 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
  • 12.85 knots (23.80 km/h; 14.79 mph) (1921)
Complement
  • 162
  • 161 (1921)
Armament

USS Paducah (PG-18) was a Dubuque-class gunboat acquired by the US Navy prior to World War I. Her task was to patrol, escort, and protect Navy ships.

Construction

Paducah (Gunboat No. 18/PG-18) was launched 11 October 1904, by Gas Engine and Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, New York; sponsored by Miss Anna May Yeiser; and commissioned 2 September 1905. She was reclassified AG–7 in 1919; IX–23, 24 April 1922; and PG–18, 4 November 1940.

Service history

After shakedown, Paducah joined the Caribbean Squadron early in 1906 to protect American lives and interests through patrols and port calls to Caribbean and Central American and South American cities. She patrolled Mexican waters in the aftermath of the Vera Cruz incident through the summer of 1914, then returned to her Caribbean operations, performing surveys from time to time.

Paducah was ordered north to prepare at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for European service in World War I, for which she sailed from New York 29 September 1917. She reached Gibraltar 27 October, and based there as convoy escort to North Africa, Italy, the Azores, and Madeira. She attacked a U-boat 9 September 1918 after it had sunk one of her convoy, and was credited with possibly damaging the submarine. Leaving Gibraltar 11 December, Paducah reached Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 7 January 1919 to decommission 2 March 1919.

She again recommissioned 16 August 1920 through 9 September 1921 for survey duty in the Caribbean. Paducah was commissioned a third time 2 May 1922 for duty training Naval Reservists in the 9th Naval District. She arrived Duluth, Minnesota, 20 June, replacing the USS Essex which then became a receiving ship. These training missions included regular two-week cruises, and gunnery practice on Lake Michigan. In addition to regular duties, the ship was used for miscellaneous ceremonial purposes, assisted in the fight against a fire on Isle Royale, and assisted with rescue work when the Mississippi River flooded.[2]

Paducah was modified in the early 1930s to run on oil-fired boilers. The triple expansion engines were installed, with boilers fore and aft. Additional modifications included hammock berthing on a new boat deck, and a sheltered main deck between the quarterdeck and the pilot house.[2]

Paducah returned to the U.S. East Coast in early 1941, and through World War II, trained Naval Armed Guard gunners in Chesapeake Bay, thus giving vital service to the Merchant Marine's crucial World War II assignment.

Post US Navy service

Decommissioning 7 September 1945, Paducah transferred to the Maritime Commission 19 December 1946, and was sold the same day to Maria Angelo, Miami, Florida. After she was sold in Miami, the ship was obtained by the Israeli group Haganah and renamed Geula, meaning "Redemption". A volunteer American crew sailed her to Bayonne, France, and from there to Bulgaria. Geula embarked 1,388 Jewish refugees and, led by former Spanish Republican Navy commander Miguel Buiza, the ship tried to run the British blockade and bring the refugees to Palestine.[3]

She was intercepted on 2 October 1947 and brought to Haifa, where she was left with other captured "illegal" immigrant ships. Because she was a former naval vessel the newly formed Israeli Navy examined her in 1948 for possible service, but she was not in good shape and was not accepted for service. She was refurbished sufficiently to sail as an Israeli merchant vessel and made one trip in late 1948 from Haifa to Naples, Italy. There she was tied up and eventually sold for scrap in 1951.

Commanders

Awards

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

  1. ^ "PG-18 Paducah". Navsource.org. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Van Der Linden, Peter (1994). Great Lakes Ships We Remember III. Cleveland, OH: Freshwater Press, Inc. p. 281.
  3. ^ Murray S. Greenfield and Joseph M. Hochstein, The Jews' Secret Fleet: The Untold Story of North American Volunteers who Smashed the British Blockade, Gefen Publishing House (2010), ISBN 978-9652295170

External links


Dubuque-class gunboats
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