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USS Dixie (AD-1)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Dixie (AD-1)

The first USS Dixie, a screw steamer, was built at Newport News, Va. in 1893 as El Rio by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co.; purchased by the Navy from the Southern Pacific Co. on 15 April 1898; converted to an auxiliary cruiser by her builder; and commissioned at Newport News on 19 April 1898, Cmdr. Charles H. Davis in command.

USS Dixie shifted from Newport News to Hampton Roads, Va. on 27 May 1898. She got underway from there for brief periods to 11 June, when she moored at Lynnhaven Bay, Va. Later departing on 13 June bound for the Caribbean.  She stood back in to Guantánamo on 15 August, then cleared Cuba on 24 August and transited via Baltimore, Md. (11–20 September) to League Island at the Philadelphia (Pa.) Navy Yard on 22 September, where she was placed out of commission on 7 March 1899. The auxiliary was then loaned to the War Department for use as an Army transport (15 March–15 July). USS Dixie recommissioned at League Island, Philadelphia Navy Yard, on 15 November 1899.

With her overhaul completed, USS Dixie cleared the New York Navy Yard on 29 September 1900 and steamed to Philadelphia (30 September) and Hampton Roads (1–3 October) to embark more landsmen for another training cruise. USS Dixie departed Gibraltar on 9 January 1901 and crossed the Mediterranean to Tangier, Morocco (9–10 January) before steaming westward into the Atlantic to touch at Funchal (15–16 January) en route to the West Indies. USS Dixie returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 13 October, where she was again placed out of commission on 23 October. USS Dixie was re-commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 2 June 1906. 

USS Dixie was underway again on 2 July 1909. Over the next two months, she supported training as the parent ship for the Atlantic Torpedo Fleet. Dixie stood out from New York on 9 November 1910 and steamed directly for the West Indies. USS Dixie replenished stores and refueled at Boston to 5 July 1911, after which she sortied with the flotilla to conduct training in New England waters through the summer. Ordered to be converted to a destroyer tender on 30 September, she had to wait until 1 October to enter the New York Navy Yard. She underwent this conversion through the end of the year, with the exception of 28 October–2 November when she cleared the yard to participate in a naval review.

She remained in the waters around Newport until 14 July, when she departed for the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Arriving on 16 July, she was to tend the destroyers in reserve at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Four days later, USS Dixie was re-designated AD-1 on 17 July 1920 as part of a Navy-wide administrative re-organization. Decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 30 June 1922, Dixie was sold on 25 September to Joseph G. Hitner Co., of Philadelphia.

For a complete history of USS Dixie (AD-1) please see its DANFS page.