USS Ellis (DD-154)

George Henry Ellis born in Peoria, Ill., in 1875, enlisted in the Navy in 1892. Chief Yeoman Ellis was killed 3 July 1898 while serving in Brooklyn during the Battle of Santiago. DD-154 was named in his honor.

The second Ellis (Destroyer No. 154) was launched 30 November 1918 by William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa.; sponsored by Mrs. E. T. Stotesbury; and commissioned 7 June 1919, Lieutenant Commander T. E. Van Metre in command. She was reclassified AG-115 on 30 June 1945.

Ellis' first cruise, between 16 June 1919 and 15 August, was to the Black Sea, carrying Food Administration officials for famine relief work, and British and American military officers between Constantinople, Turkey; Varna, Bulgaria; and Batum, Russia. She returned to a year of exercises on the east coast and in the Caribbean. From 29 September 1920 to 16 March 1921 she was in reserve at Charleston. She sailed north to fire test torpedoes off Newport, lay again at Charleston from October 1921 through February 1922. On 27 February she entered Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she was out of commission from 17 June 1922 to 1 May 1930.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Ellis II (Destroyer No. 154)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.