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Gunboat Photo Archive
Paducah (PG 18)
Call sign:
November - Echo - Sierra - 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, 24 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 1,225 t; Length 200' 5"; Beam 35'; Draft 13' 4"; Speed 10.3 kts; Complement 107; Armament 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 1,000ihp Gas Engine Power Co. vertical triple expansion engines, two shafts.
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Historical Collections of the Great Lakes |
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Robert Hirst |
View the Paducah (PG 18) DANFS History
This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan
© 2006 Joseph M. Radigan © 1996 - 2006 NavSource Naval History. All Rights Reserved.
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