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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Prairie (AD-5)
ex
 USS Prairie (Destroyer Tender) (1917 - 1920)
 USS Prairie (Transport) (1906 - 1917)
 USS Prairie (Auxiliary Cruiser) (1898 - 1906)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons



Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Navy Expeditionary Service Medal
Second Row -Spanish Campaign Medal - Cuban Pacification Medal - Mexican Service Medal
Third Row - Haiti Campaign Medal - Dominican Campaign Medal - World War I Victory Medal (with Mobile Base Clasp)
  • Built 1890 as SS El Sol for Morgan Lines by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Acquired by the Southern Pacific Co., renamed SS Prairie
  • Purchased by the US Navy, 6 April 1898
  • Commissioned as Auxiliary Cruiser USS Prairie, 8 April 1898, CDR. Charles J. Train, in command
  • Decommissioned, 15 March 1899 at Philadelphia, PA.
  • Placed in Reserve Commission, 23 March 1899
  • Decommissioned, 18 February 1901, at New York
  • Recommissioned, 9 November 1901, at Boston, MA.
  • Decommissioned, 14 June 1905, at Boston, MA.
  • Recommissioned, 26 September 1906, as a Transport
  • Converted to a Destroyer Tender in 1917
  • Designated (AD-5), 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 22 November, 1922, at San Diego, CA.
  • Final disposition, sold for scrapping, 22 June 1933 to Louis Rothernberg, Oakland, CA.
    Specifications:
    Displacement 6,620 t.
    Length 404' 9"
    Beam 48' 3"
    Draft 20' 9"
    Speed 15 kts.
    Compliment unknown
    Propulsion unknown
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Prairie 71k USS Prairie in April 1898 at New York Navy Yard, soon after commissioning during conversion to an Auxiliary Cruiser
    US Navy photo # NH 44056 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.    		 US Naval Historical Center
    Prairie 138k Port broadside view of the Transport USS Prairie anchored during the 1909 Hudson-Fulton celebration.
    Library of Congress photo # LC-D4-22610    		 Mike Green
    Prairie 48k USS Prairie at anchor, date and location unknown. Photo from "Jane's Fighting Ships 1914." Robert Hurst
    Prairie 95k USS Prairie at anchor, date and location unknown.
    Library of Congress, LC-D4-20890    		 Mike Green
    USS Prairie (AD-5)
    DANFS history entry located at the US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR. Train, Charles Jackson :RADM8 April 1898 - 1 October 1898
    02LT. Dewitt, Clinton Coffman (1876)1 October 1898 - ?
    03LT. Bell, John Arthur (1879)March 1899 - ?
    04CDR. Kennedy, Duncan21 October 1902 - ?
    05CDR. Dunn, Herbert Omar :RADM1907 - ?
    06CDR. Witherspoon, Edward Taylor22 February 1909 - 18 May 1910
    07CDR. Bryan, Henry Francis :RADM18 May 1910 - ?
    08LT. Milne, MacGillvray17 June 1913 - ?
    09CDR. Stickney. Herman Osman :RADM1914 - ?
    10CAPT. Beach Sr., Edward Latimer (temporary)December 1916 - January 1917
    11CDR. Crosley, Walter Selwyn10 July 1914 - 12 February 1917
    13CDR. Jenson, Henry Norman1 November 1919 - ?
    14CDR. Draemel, Milo Frederick :RADM1921 - ?
    15CAPT.Oberlin, Edgar Garfield1922 - 22 November 1922
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves. Photos courtesy Bill Gonyo
    Back To The Navsource Photo Archives Main Page Back To the Service Force Auxiliaries and Miscellaneous Ship Type Index Back To The Transport Photo (AP) Index Back To The Destroyer Tender (AD) Photo Index
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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History
    Last Updated 18 January 2013