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Gunboat Photo Archive

Paducah (PG 18)



Call sign:
Nan - Easy - Sugar - Charlie

ex-IX-23
ex-AG-7
ex-Gunboat No. 18

Dubuque Class Gunboat:

  • Laid down 22 September 1903 by the Gas Engine and Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, Long Island, NY
  • Launched 11 October 1904
  • Commissioned USS Paducah (Gunboat No. 18), 2 September 1905
  • Decommissioned 2 March 1919
  • Reclassified as a Miscellaneous Auxiliary, AG-7 in 1919
  • Recommissioned 16 August 1920
  • Decommissioned 9 September 1921
  • Reclassified as an Unclassified Miscellaneous Auxiliary, IX-23, 22 April 1922
  • Recommissioned 2 May 1922
  • Reclassified as a Patrol Gunboat, PG-18, 4 November 1940
  • Decommissioned 7 September 1945
  • Transferred to the Maritime Commission 19 December 1946 and sold to Maria Angelo of Miami, FL
  • After she was sold in Miami, the ship was obtained by the Israeli group Haganah and renamed Geula, meaning "Redemption," was taken by a volunteer American crew to Bayonne, France, and from there to Bulgaria. One
    thousand three hundred eighty eight Jewish refugees were embarked and the ship tried to run the British blockade and bring the refugees to Palestine. She was intercepted on 2 October 1947 and brought to Haifa, where she
    was left with other captured "illegal" immigrant ships. Because she was a former naval vessel the newly formed Israeli Navy examined her in 1948 for possible service, but she was not in good shape and was not accepted for
    service. She was refurbished sufficiently to sail as an Israeli merchant vessel and made one trip in late 1948 from Haifa to Naples, Italy. There she was tied up and eventually sold for scrap in 1951.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,237 t.
  • Length 200' 5"
  • Length between perpendiculars 174'
  • Beam 35'
  • Draft 12' 3"
  • Speed 12 kts.
    1921 - 12.85 kts.
  • Complement 162
    1921 - 161
  • Armament: Six 4" mounts, four 6-pounders and two 1-pounders
    1905 - Six 4" rapid fire mounts, four 6-pounder rapid fire mounts, two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts and one .30 cal. Colt machine gun
    1911 - Six 4"/50 rapid fire mounts, four 6-pounder rapid fire mounts and two 1-pounder rapid fire mounts
    1918 - Four 4"/50 mounts and four 6-pounders
    1921 - Four 4"/50 mounts and one 3"/23 mount
    World War II - One 5"/38 dual purpose mount, two 4"/50 gun mounts and one 3"/50 dual purpose mount
  • Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox boilers, two 500ihp Gas Engine Power Co. vertical triple-expansion engines, two shafts
    1921 - Two 623.5ihp vertical triple-expansion engines.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Paducah, Gunboat No. 18
    Paducah 110k Gibraltar David Smith
    Paducah 111k c. May 1912
    Library of Congress photo LC-B2-11-14    		 Mike Green
    USS Paducah (PG 18)
    Paducah 48k . Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Paducah 60k . Robert Hurst
    Geula
    Paducah 174k c. 1947
    Geula being intercepted by HMS Mermaid [U 30] off the coast of Palestine
    Photo for the collection of the late Eric Wheatley, formerly of HMS Mermaid    		 Colin Yarwood
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Albert Gustavus Winterhalter, USN - USNA Class of 1873
    Retired as Admiral    		2 September 1905
    ??CDR A. O. Rabideau, USNR1940
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Paducah (PG 18) DANFS History
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back to the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Index Back to the Patrol Gunboat (PG) Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Photo Index Back to the Miscellaneous Auxiliary (AG) Photo Index Back to the Unclassified Miscellaneous Auxiliary (IX) Photo Index
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