USS Manley (DD-74)
The Caldwell-class destroyer, USS Manley (Destroyer #74) was built at Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, and was commissioned on October 15, 1917, during World War I. Joining Battleship Division Nine the next month, she began escorting Allied ships at Queenstown, Ireland. On March 19, 1918, a depth-charge accidently exploded on her fantail, killing 33 enlisted men and the executive officer. Repaired in Liverpool, England, that December, she served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean areas. In July 1920, Manley was designated as DD-74 and was decommissioned two years later. Recommissioned in May 1930 as n experimental torpedo-firing ship, she served off both coasts and with Squadron T-40 in the fall of 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. In November 1938, she was reclassified as AG-28 and began landing Marines for training. Designated as the Navy's first high-speed transport, APD-1, in August 1940, she served in the Atlantic upon United States' entry into World War II before departing for the Pacific. Manley subsequently participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign in 1942, the invasions of the Marshall Islands and Saipan in 1944, the invasion force for Leyte, Philippines in October, the landings of Lingayen Gulf in January 1945, and the Okinawa Invasion in April. Reclassified as DD-74 in June, Manley was decommissioned in November, struck from the Navy List in December, and sold for scrapping in November 1946.
A model of Manley was on display in the World War I section at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Bldg. 76, until 2022.
Image: NH 46647: USS Manley (Destroyer #74), wearing WWI pattern camouflage, 1918. NHHC Photograph Collection.
