USS Biddle (TB-26)

The first USS Biddle (Torpedo Boat No. 26/TB-26/Coast Torpedo Boat No. 12) was a torpedo boat in the United States Navy. She was named for Captain Nicholas Biddle.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Biddle.

History
United States
Name: Biddle
Namesake: Captain Nicholas Biddle
Ordered: 4 May 1898 (authorized)
Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, ME
Laid down: 21 February 1900
Launched: 18 May 1901 [1]
Sponsored by: Miss Emily B. Biddle, great-great-grandniece of Captain Biddle
Commissioned: 26 October 1901
Decommissioned: 12 March 1919
Renamed:
  • Coast Torpedo Boat No. 12,
  • 1 August 1918
Identification: TB-26
Fate: sold, 19 July 1920
General characteristics [2]
Class and type: Bagley-class torpedo boat
Displacement: 175 long tons (178 t)[3]
Length: 157 ft (48 m)
Beam: 17 ft 8 in (5.38 m)
Draft: 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) (mean)[3]
Installed power:
  • 2 × Normand boilers
  • 4,200 ihp (3,100 kW)
Propulsion:
  • vertical triple expansion engine
  • 2 × screw propellers
Speed:
  • 28.6 knots (53.0 km/h; 32.9 mph)
  • 28.54 kn (32.84 mph; 52.86 km/h) (Speed on Trial)[3]
Complement: 28 officers and enlisted
Armament:

Biddle was launched 18 May 1901 by Bath Iron Works, Ltd., Bath, Maine; sponsored by Miss Emily B. Biddle, great-great-grandniece of Captain Biddle; and commissioned 26 October 1901, Lieutenant S. S. Robison in command.

Biddle departed Newport, Rhode Island, 1 November 1901 for Port Royal, South Carolina where she went into reserve. Following recommissioning 28 May 1902 she cruised with the Torpedo Boat Flotilla along the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies until January 1903. She went into reserve again 16 February 1903 at Norfolk Navy Yard and remained there until recommissioned 14 May 1909. Biddle spent the summer cruising with the Atlantic Torpedo Fleet and then went into reserve at Charleston Navy Yard 18 November 1909. In October 1911 she shifted to the Reserve Flotilla Division at Annapolis, Maryland, and went into ordinary at the Naval Academy, 13 March 1914.

After serving with the Pennsylvania Naval Militia (June–September 1915) Biddle reverted to the Annapolis Reserve torpedo Division. Recommissioned 6 April 1917 she served in the 5th Naval District as a patrol and despatch vessel at Norfolk. Biddle was renamed Coast Torpedo Boat No. 12, 1 August 1918.

Ordered to Philadelphia Navy Yard in January 1919, she was decommissioned 12 March 1919 and sold 19 July 1920.

References
  1. http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/tb/050326.htm
  2. "USS Biddle (TB-26)". Navsource.org. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  3. "Table 11 - Ships on Navy List June 30, 1919". Congressional Serial Set. U.S. Government Printing Office: 725. 1921.
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