USS Hale (DD-133)

Eugene Hale, born at Turner, Maine, on 6 June 1836, was admitted to the bar in 1857 and served for nine years as prosecuting attorney for Hancock County. He was elected to the Maine legislature 1867-68, to the House of Representatives 1869-79, and succeeded Hannibal Hamlin in the Senate, serving from 1881 to 1911. Although he declined the post of Secretary of the Navy in the President Rutherford B. Hayes' administration, Senator Hale performed constructive work of the greatest importance in the area of naval appropriations, especially during the early fights for the "New Navy." "I hope," he said in 1884, "that I shall not live many years before I shall see the American Navy what it ought to be, the pet of the American people." Much later in his career, he opposed the building of large numbers of capital ships, which he regarded as less effective in proportion to cost and subject to rapid obsolescence. Retiring from politics in 1911, Hale spent the remainder of his life in Ellsworth, Maine, and in Washington, D.C., where he died on 27 October 1918.

The unnamed Destroyer No. 133 was laid down on 7 October 1918 at Bath, Maine, by Bath Iron Works; named Hale on 23 January 1919 in General Order No. 449; launched on 29 May 1919; sponsored by Miss Mary Hale, granddaughter of the late Senator Hale; and commissioned at the Boston [Mass.] Navy Yard on 12 June 1919, Cmdr. Allan S. Farquhar in command.

Hale joined Destroyer Squadron 3, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and after training exercises departed on 11 July 1919 for Europe. On this cruise, the ship paid goodwill visits to European and Mediterranean ports, assisted in the execution of the Austrian Armistice in October, and joined the American detachment in Turkish waters. Hale then carried refugees, relief officials, and freight between the ports of Greece, Bulgaria, and Russia, showing the flag in the vital Mediterranean and Balkan area. She returned to Philadelphia on 31 March 1920 and resumed her schedule of training and development exercises along the Eastern Coast. On 17 July 1920, the ship was redesignated to DD-133. Hale was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 22 June 1922 and remained in reserve until 1 May 1930, when she was re-commissioned.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Hale I (Destroyer No. 133)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.