Archibald Hamilton

Namesake

Archibald Hamilton was born c. 1790, the son of Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton. He was appointed Midshipman on 18 May 1809 and assigned to work with a new kind of hollow shot needed by frigate USS President. He next sailed for Europe on USS John Adams on 31 January 1811 carrying dispatches for American officers in the Mediterranean. On his return to the United States, Hamilton was assigned to USS United States on which he won commendation from his commanding officer, Captain Stephen Decatur, for gallantry in action during the capture of British frigate HMS Macedonian on 25 October 1812. Decatur selected him to bear the captured British flags to Washington.

Appointed Acting Lieutenant on 21 December 1812 and Lieutenant on 24 July 1813, Hamilton served throughout the War of 1812, only to be killed shortly after the Treaty of Ghent had formally ended the war. Because of the slow communications of the day, word of peace had not reached New York by 15 January 1815 when the frigate USS President, commanded by Captain Decatur and having Hamilton as one of her lieutenants, ran the blockade out of that port. The next day British men-of-war HMS Endymion, HMS Pomone and HMS Tenedos overtook and captured President after a long and bloody running fight in which Hamilton was killed. He was the last U.S. Navy officer to die in the War of 1812.

Construction and commissioning

Hamilton was launched on 15 January 1919 by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, sponsored by Miss Dolly Hamilton Hawkins, great-grand-niece of Archibald Hamilton. The ship was commissioned on 7 November 1919.

Service history

Based at San Diego, Hamilton participated in battle practice and maneuvers along the California coast with Destroyer Squadron 17. In mid-1920 she also took part in torpedo and smoke screen operations in Hawaii. Battle practice and other readiness operations ranging across the Pacific to Hawaii continued until Hamilton decommissioned at San Diego on 20 July 1922.

Hamilton recommissioned on 20 January 1930 and, after shakedown, reached her new home port, Norfolk, on 26 November. She served with the Scouting Force, operating along the East Coast throughout 1931, and then returned to San Diego in January 1932. After a year of plane guard duty and battle exercises along the California coast, Hamilton again shifted to the East Coast, reaching Norfolk on 29 January 1933. Based at Newport, Rhode Island, she served with the Scouting Force in local operations and exercises.

In 1938 an activated-tank stabilization system designed by Nicolas Minorsky was tested in Hamilton but exhibited control stability problems. The outbreak of World War II in Europe in late 1939 interrupted further development as Hamilton was called to active duty. Hamilton joined other members of her class on the Grand Banks Patrol, which sent American ships as far north as Iceland and Greenland to protect their own and neutral shipping. Hamilton continued this duty until converted to a fast minesweeper in June 1941. Reclassified DMS-18 on 17 October 1941, she resumed patrol duty along the East Coast and into the North Atlantic.

World War II

When the United States was catapulted into the war on 7 December 1941, Hamilton's pace accelerated greatly. Wartime duties now took Hamilton on coastal convoys from New York through German U-boat-infested waters as far south as the Panama Canal Zone.

The Caribbean Sea and the waters off Cape Hatteras were particularly rich ground for U-boats, and Hamilton more than once attacked U-boats sighted on the surface or detected by sound contacts. On 9 June 1942 Hamilton rescued 39 survivors of USS Gannet, torpedoed just north of Bermuda.

The shifting tide of war drew Hamilton from the coastal convoy route in the fall of 1942 as she became part of "Operation Torch," the Allied invasion of North Africa. Hamilton sailed for North Africa on 24 October with Rear Admiral H. K. Hewitt's Task Force 34, a part of the Allied amphibious thrust. Two weeks later, she cruised off the Moroccan coast providing antisubmarine (ASW) protection and fire support for the first waves of invasion barges as the Allies landed at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers on 8 November 1942.

Hamilton remained along the North African shore on minesweeping and escort duty out of Casablanca until December when she sailed for the Brooklyn Navy Yard, arriving 26 December. The following year saw Hamilton engaged primarily in coastal convoy duty, guiding and protecting merchantmen as they threaded their perilous way through German submarine packs from Iceland to the Caribbean.

Departing Norfolk on 3 December 1943, Hamilton transited the Panama Canal five days later and reached San Diego on 16 December. From San Diego she steamed to Pearl Harbor and, after a brief training period, sailed for Kwajalein Atoll, a key target in the Marshalls. As the Marines stormed ashore there on 31 January 1944, Hamilton steamed in the area to screen transports and provide the fire support that made it possible to land and stay.

After the successful conclusion of that invasion, Hamilton retired to Nouméa, New Caledonia, to prepare for the invasion of the Admiralty Islands. At Nouméa, Hamilton joined forces with three other destroyers converted to fast minesweepers-Hovey, Long, and Palmer—to form a preliminary sweep unit. It was the mission of these ships to enter enemy harbors three to five days before landings to clear out mines and provide safe anchorage for the invasion force. The toll of these operations, conducted before enemy shore batteries had been taken out, was high. Of her original unit only Hamilton survived the war.

Awards

Hamilton earned nine battle stars for World War II service.