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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive


Contributed by Don McGrogan

USS Panther (AD-6)
ex
USS Panther (Destroyer Tender) (1917 - 1920)
USS Panther (Auxiliary Repair Ship) (1907 - 1917)
USS Panther (Auxiliary Cruiser) (1898 - 1907)


Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from left to right
Spanish Campaign Medal - Navy Expeditionary Service Medal - World War I Victory Medal (with Mobile Base Clasp)

  • Built in 1889 as SS Austin by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Purchased by the US Navy, 12 April 1898 from the Red D Line Steamship Co.; Designated an Auxiliary Cruiser and Commissioned USS Panther, 22 April 1898, CDR. George C. Reiter in command
  • Placed in-ordinary, 20 October 1899 at Philadelphia, PA
  • Recommissioned, 19 June 1902
  • Decommissioned, 21 October 1903 at Philadelphia, PA.
  • Recommissioned, 18 November 1907 as a Auxiliary Repair Ship
  • Reclassified a Destroyer Tender, April 1917
  • Designated (AD-6), 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register in May 1922
  • Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 24 March 1923, to Tioga Steel Co., Philadelphia, PA.
    Specifications:
    Displacement 4,260 t.
    Length 324' 4"
    Beam 40' 6"
    Draft 18'
    Speed 13 kts.
    Complement 138
    Armament (Auxiliary Cruiser)
    six 5" gun mounts
    two 4" gun mounts
    six 3-pdrs
    one Colt machine gun.
    Propulsion steam

    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image
    Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    Auxiliary Cruiser USS Panther
    Panther 81k Auxiliary Cruiser USS Panther circa 1898, during the Spanish-American War
    US Navy photo NH44471 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center
    US Naval Historical Center
    Auxiliary Repair Ship USS Panther
    Panther 50k Destroyer Tender USS Panther at anchor, date and location unknown. Photo from "Jane's Fighting Ships 1914." Robert Hurst
    Destroyer Tender USS Panther
    Panther 93k Destroyer Tender USS Panther at anchor, circa 1916-17, about the time of her conversion to a Destroyer Tender.
    Library of Congress, photo # LC-F82- 1566
    Mike Green
    Panther 93k USS Panther moored in Kirkwall Harbor, Orkney Islands, while supporting the North Sea mine barrage clearance operation in 1919. She has several trawlers and submarine chasers alongside. The latter include (from left to right, in outboard group off Panther's port side: USS SC-181 USS SC-48, USS SC-328 and USS SC-38.
    Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken by DeLong, of USS Black Hawk, published in the cruise book "Sweeping the North Sea Mine Barrage, 1919", page 33.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 99690, donation of SKC Charles A. Free.
    Robert Hurst
    Panther 69k USS Panther at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands with part of the Mine force. Sub Chasers identifiable include USS SC-328, USS SC-208 and USS SC-207. The Sub Chaser Archives

    Panther (AD-6)
    DANFS history entry located at the US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR. Reiter, George Cook22 April 1898 - 25 June 1902
     CDR. Wilson, John Clarke25 June 1902 - ?
     CDR. Nelson, Valentine S.1907 - ?
     CDR. McKean, Josiah Slutts18 October 1909 - ?
     CDR. De Steiguer, Louis Rudolph :ADMJanuary 1913 - December 1913
     CDR. Proctor, André MortonAugust 1916 - August 1917
    08CDR. Root, Edmond Spence3 July 1918 - 1919
    09LCDR. Baum, George Martin3 January 1921 - 1922
     CDR. Oberlin, Edgar Garfield1922 - ?
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves

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    This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo
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    Last Updated 10 February 2012