USS Biddle (TB-26)
1901-1917
Bagley Class Torpedo Boat

• Displacement: 175 Tons
• Dimensions: 157" x 17'8" x 4'11"
• Armament: 3 x 1pdr, 3 x 18" tt
• Speed: 28.6 Knots
• Crew: 28

Operational and Building Data:

• Launched May 18^th 1901, Bath Iron Works, Maine.
• Reserve from 1903 - 1909
• Recommissioned May 14^th 1909
• Served in Atlantic Torpedo Fleet Summer 1909
• Placed into Reserve Flotilla Division, Charleston Navy Yard November, November 1909
• Shifted to Reserve Flotilla Division, Annapolis, October 1911
• Served with the Pennsylvania Naval Militia, 1915
• Recommissioned April 1917, served in the 5^th Naval District as a patrol and dispatch vessel at Norfolk as Coast Torpedo Boat No. 12
• Decommissioned March 12, 1919 sold July 19, 1920

USS Biddle (TB-26).

TB-26 in Norfolk Navy Yard, 1907.

Information courtesy of The DANFS Online Project
Images courtesy of the Naval Historical Center
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USS Biddle (DD-151)
1918 - 1946
Wickes Class Destroyer

• Displacement: 1,154 Tons
• Dimensions: 314' 5" x 31' 8" x 9' 10"
• Armament: 4 x 4"/50, 2 x 1pdr AA (1 x 3"/23AA In Some Ships), 12 x 21" tt
• Machinery: 24,200 SHP; Geared Turbines, Two screws
• Speed: 35 Knots
• Crew: 103

Operational and Building Data:

• Laid down by Cramp, Philadelphia on April 22 1918.
• Launched October 3 1918 and commissioned April 22 1919.
• Decommissioned June 20 1922.
• Recommissioned October 16 1939 and assigned to Neutrality Patrol.
• Reclassified Auxiliary AG-114 June 30 1945.
• Decommissioned October 5 1945.
• Stricken October 24 1945.
• Fate Sold December 3 1946 and broken up for scrap.

Biddle as built, image dates 1920-1922.	The USS Biddle (DD-151) and USS Dickerson (DD-157) in drydock circa 1935 - 1936.
Biddle as recommissioned in October 1939.	Biddle seen here in her final appearance.

Information courtesy of The DANFS Online Project
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USS Biddle (DDG-5)
1960 - 1964

Charles F. Adams Class Guided Missile Destroyer

• Displacement: 4,500 Tons
• Dimensions: 437' x 47'
• Armament: Twin Mk11 Tartar Launcher, 42 SM-1 MR SAMs
• Machinery: 70,000 SHP, Two Westinghouse Geared Steam Turbines, Two Screws
• Speed: 31 Knots
• Crew:

Building Information:

• Laid down by New York Shipbuilding, Camden, NJ, May 18, 1959
• Launched: June 4, 1960
• Commissioned: May 5, 1962 as the USS Biddle
• Served October 1962 in the Cuban Blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Re-Commissioned: July 28, 1964 as the USS Claude V. Ricketts
  • The Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Claude V. Ricketts died July 6, 1964, thus the renaming and re-commissioning
• Decommissioned October 31, 1989
• Sold to N.R. Acquisition Inc, New York City, for scrapping.

USS William P. Biddle (APA-8)
1919 - 1946

Heywood Class Attack Transport

• Displacement: 14,450 Tons
• Dimensions: 507' x 56' x 25'6"
• Armament: One 5", Four 3", Four .50 cal machine guns
• Speed: 16.5 Knots

Okay, this ship isn't named for Captain Nicholas Biddle.  And really, the only reason it's here is that a few years ago I saw a man wearing a USS William P. Biddle sweatshirt and was utterly confused.  Hopefully, should you ever see or hear about the "Willie P.", you won't give the person the same dumbfounded gaze that I gave that poor man.

Building Information:

• Laid down by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp of Alameda, California as the the British War Surf
• Launched: 1919
• Served variously as the Eclipse, City of Hamburg, city of San francisco as a passenger and mail steamship.
• Commissioned: November 13, 1940 as the USS William P. Biddle
• Served throughout WWII in the Pacific and Atlantic Theaters as a troop transport for the Marines and Army, ultimately serving at landings in Casablanca, New Caledonia, Sicily, Tarawa, the Marshalls, Guadalcanal, and Leyte Gulf.
• She was enroute with casulaties from the Phillipines to Ulithi on August 8^th, 1945 (V-J Day)
• Decommissioned April 9, 1946
• She remained int he reserve fleet until 1957 when she was sold and broken up for scrap.

The William P. Biddle in camoflauge

Information courtesy of D.G. Skouse, Independence, Mo.