USS Bainbridge (DD-246)

The third Bainbridge (Destroyer No. 246) was laid down on 27 May 1919 at Camden, N.J., by the New York Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 12 June 1920; sponsored by Miss Juliet Edith Bertram Greene, great=great-granddaughter of Commodore Bainbridge; reclassfied as DD-246 on 17 July 1920; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 9 February 1921, Ens. Joseph T. Moran, Jr., in temporary command until relieved on 23 February 1921 by Lt. Cmdr. Hewlett Thebaud.

Going into service in a Navy suffering the effects of manpower shortages caused by postwar demobilization and magnified by the completion of the massive shipbuilding program begun during the war, Bainbridge spent her first 10 months of active duty almost becalmed in her assignment to the Atlantic Fleet's Destroyer Squadrons. Commissioned too late to participate, she missed the 1921 edition of the annual winter maneuvers, a part of which were held on the west coasts of Central and South America. Instead, she steamed north late in February to Newport, R.I., whence she carried out her shakedown training. In March, the warship sailed south to Charleston, S.C., where she remained until early May. At that time, she returned north, stopping off at New York before reentering Newport early in June. Most of the summer passed with Bainbridge idly moored with only half a crew. In fact, she did not put to sea again until heading back to Charleston early in October. After a short visit to New York, Bainbridge arrived in Charleston on 13 October and remained there for the rest of 1921.

By contrast, 1922 proved to be an active one for Bainbridge . Despite the cancellation of full-scale winter maneuvers as a result of fuel shortages caused by congressional parsimony, those portions of the exercises involving target practice and engineering competition took place as planned. Consequently, Bainbridge departed Charleston on 5 January 1922 and arrived in Guacanayabo Bay, Cuba, on the 12th. For nearly three months, she plied the waters of the West Indies executing elementary gunnery drills and carrying out engineering competitions that focused on improving fuel economy. The destroyer concluded those evolutions late in April and headed north to Philadelphia, Pa., where she remained for nearly three months. In mid-July, Bainbridge set out for Boston and a month of operations in New England waters mostly off the coast of Maine. She completed that duty at the end of August and returned south to Lynnhaven Roads, Va., for about a week before visiting New York for two weeks in the middle of September.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Bainbridge III (DD-246)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.