Reid II (Destroyer No. 292)
1919-1930
Samuel Chester Reid, born in Norwich, Conn., 24 August 1783, entered the U.S. Navy in 1794. He served in the frigate Constellation with Commodore Thomas Truxtun and in 1803 became master of the brig Merchant. During the War of 1812 he commanded the privateer General Armstrong and at Fayal, Azores, in 1814 engaged gunboats from British men-of-war en route to Jamaica and New Orleans. Although eventually forced to scuttle and abandon his ship, Reid's action delayed the British squadron and aided General Andrew Jackson's defense of New Orleans. He was appointed master in the Navy in 1844 and died at New York 28 January 1861.
(Destroyer No. 292: displacement 1,215 (normal); length 314'4"; beam 31'8"; draft 9'10"; speed 34 knots; complement 122; armament 4 4-inch, 1 3-inch, 12 21-inch torpedo tubes; class Clemson)
II
The second Reid (Destroyer No. 292) was laid down on 9 September 1919 at Squantum, Mass., by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 15 October 1919; sponsored by Mrs. Joseph W. Powell; and commissioned on 3 December 1919, Lt. Cmdr. Vance D. Chapline in command.
Assigned to Squadron 3, Atlantic Fleet, Reid completed shakedown off Cuba in February 1920; participated in battle practice in March; and on 26 April put into New York. Underway again on 1 May, she steamed south again, touched at Key West, then cruised off the east coast of Mexico until mid-June. By 6 July she was at Newport, whence she made several runs to New York prior to shifting to Charleston toward the end of September. For almost three years she remained on the east coast, operating out of Charleston, Newport, and Yorktown. Such coastal operations were occasionally interrupted for brief periods of inactivity at Charleston, due to cuts in personnel.
In late January 1923 Reid returned to Guantanamo Bay for winter maneuvers, and in February she continued on to the Canal Zone for battle practice. By the end of March she was back off Cuba, whence she returned to Newport and exercises off the east coast. In the winter of 1924, she repeated her Caribbean operations; but, in the spring, headed east for duty in European waters.
On 28 June she arrived at Cherbourg, France, and on 1 July joined the Light Cruiser Squadron. During that month she visited various Baltic and North Sea ports. In mid-August she conducted airplane patrols off Iceland, and in September she steamed into the Mediterranean. She remained in the western Mediterranean into November, then proceeded, via Crete and Greece, to Turkey. During the next two months, she cruised the eastern basin, calling at ports in the Levant and Egypt, and, in February 1925, resumed operations off France and Tunisia.
Reid departed the Mediterranean in early May, and, after calls at French and British ports, crossed the Atlantic, arriving at New York 16 July. By the end of August she had resumed operations out of Newport and in September she again steamed south for exercises in the Caribbean. In December she underwent overhaul at Philadelphia, then returned to the Caribbean.
Attached to the Scouting Fleet for the next four years, she continued to alternate east coast training cruises with Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico operations. From 24 April to 12 June 1927, she participated in the second Nicaraguan campaign - cruising off that coast, delivering supplies and mail to USMC detachments ashore, and assisting in the collecting of arms from liberal forces.
In 1929 Reid was designated for inactivation. She completed her last cruise at Philadelphia 30 August 1929 and was decommissioned there 1 May 1930. Struck from the Navy list 22 October 1930, she was sold for scrapping to the Boston Iron & Metal Co., Baltimore, Md., 17 January 1931.
23 September 2005
