Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger
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Warship Wednesday, July 17, 2024: Under Four Flags
Above we see the sailors of the Northern Red Banner Fleet loading the 24-spigot Hedgehog ASW device on their new (to them) Wickes/Town-class destroyer, Zhivuchy/Zhguchiy (“Tenacious”), which they took over from the British some 80 years ago this week, on 16 July 1944.
By this point in the war– her second– she had already passed through American, British, and Canadian hands and still had some fighting left on her dance card.
The Wickes
Our ship was one of the iconic first flights of “Four Piper” destroyers that were designed in 1915-16 with input from no less an authority as Captain (later Admiral) W.S. Sims. Beamy ships with a flush deck and a quartet of boilers (with a smokestack for each) were coupled to a pair of Parsons geared turbines to provide 35.3 knots designed speed– which is still considered fast today, more than a century later.
The teeth of these 314-foot, 1,250-ton greyhounds were four 4-inch/50 cal MK 9 guns and a full dozen 21-inch torpedo tubes.
They reportedly had short legs and were very wet, which made long-range operations a problem, but they gave a good account of themselves. Originally a class of 50 was authorized in 1916, but once the U.S. entered WWI in April 1917, this was soon increased and increased again to some 111 ships built by 1920.
Wickes class USS Yarnall (DD-143): Booklet of General Plans – Inboard Profile / Outboard Profile, June 10, 1918, NARA NAID: 158704871
Wickes class USS Yarnall (DD-143): Booklet of General Plans – Main Deck / 1st Platform Deck / S’ch L’t P’f’m, S’ch L’t Control P’f’m, Fire Control P’f’m Bridge, Galley Top, After Dk. House and 2nd Platform Deck. / June 10, 1918, Hold NARA NAID: 158704873
Wickes class. A close-up of her stern top-down view of plans shows the Wickes class’s primary armament– a dozen torpedo tubes in four turnstiles and stern depth charges.
Of the 111 Wickes completed, there were three subclasses besides the 38 standard-design vessels built at Bath Iron Works, Cramp, Mare Island, and Charleston. Then came the 52 Bethlehem-designed ships built at the company’s Fore River (26 ships) and Union Iron Works (26 ships) led by USS Little, the Newport News-built variants (11 ships) starting with USS Lamberton, and New York Shipbuilding-built variants (10 ships) led by USS Tattnall.
The subclasses were constructed to a slightly different set of plans modified by their respective builders, which made for some downright confusing modifications later. In addition, the Bethlehem-designed Little variants tended to have shorter legs and proved unable to cross the Atlantic in a single hop without stopping in the Azores for refueling or completing an underway replenishment.
Anyway…
Meet Fairfax
Our subject, USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93), was the first ship named in honor of Virginia-born RADM Donald McNeil Fairfax whose distinguished service in the Civil War included command of USS Cayuga, Nantucket, and Montauk.
Rear Admiral Fairfax, seen as an LCDR/CDR above, served with distinction in the Civil War and retired on 30 September 1881 after 43 years of service. He died at Hagerstown, Maryland, on 10 January 1894, aged 75.
Our tin can was laid down on 10 July 1917 at Vallejo by the Mare Island Navy Yard; named Fairfax (Destroyer No. 93) on 14 July 1917 in General Order No. 311; launched on 15 December 1917; sponsored by the daughter of the yard commandant.
The future USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) is being prepared for launching, at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa 15 December 1917. NH 70607
Fairfax was commissioned on 6 April 1918, almost a year to the day that America entered the Great War.
She was beautiful in her original dazzle pattern war paint.
Possibly the best Wickes class profile I’ve ever seen. USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) at anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard during the ship’s trials. NH 2025
USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) making smoke while steaming at 25 knots during trials in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. NH 55612
USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) making smoke while running at 25 knots, during trials in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard. Note this ship’s pattern camouflage. NH 23
USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) at anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard during the ship’s trials. NH 54131
USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) at anchor in the San Francisco Bay area, 21 May 1918. NH 54132
War!
A war baby born an ocean away from the fighting, Fairfax soon found herself with orders for Hampton Roads, where she arrived in early June to escort a convoy across the Atlantic, a role she would continue for the rest of the year.
Destroyers Israel and Fairfax with battleship Virginia in the distance. NH 109504
U.S. Navy Destroyer on convoy duty in 1918. This ship may be USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93), whose camouflage scheme was very similar, though not identical, to that seen here. Courtesy of Jack L. Howland, 1983. NH 95211
While on a Hampton Roads to Brest convoy on 18 October, she raced to a distress signal from the 6,744-ton American cargo ship SS Lucia, torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine SM U-155 (ex-Deutschland, Korvettenkapitan Ferdinand Studt, commanding) some 1,200 miles off the U.S. East Coast.
SS Lucia, built in 1912, was an Austrian-flagged merchant ship that was interned at Mobile, Alabama in 1914 while the U.S. was still The Great Neutral. Seized by the United States Government in April 1917, she was operated by the U.S. Shipping Board and later by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps as ID # 3090. Signal Corps Photo # 165-WW 274A-10 while in Mobile, circa 1917, via NARA.
S.S. Lucia (Austrian/American Freighter, 1912) sinking in the western Atlantic after she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-155, on 17 October 1918. A boatload of survivors is in the process of leaving the ship. This ship was intended to become USS Lucia (ID # 3090) but was lost before the Navy could acquire her. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2005. NH 51459-A
Luckily, Lucia took 22 slow hours to submerge fully, allowing Fairfax to rescue 86 survivors. The only souls lost were four killed in the torpedo explosion. The steamer had been fitted at great cost with controversial Donnelly buoyancy boxes that made her “unsinkable,” which may have had something to do with her slow death.
USS Fairfax Description: (Destroyer # 93) underway with the survivors of S.S. Lucia on board, circa 18 October 1918. They were later transferred to the USS Huntington (Armored Cruiser # 5). NH 54134
Sinking of S.S. Lucia 17 October 1918. Motor launch arrives alongside USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) with a load of survivors from the American steamship Lucia. This boat is from the USS Huntington (Armored Cruiser # 5). NH 41727
Sinking of S.S. Lucia 17 October 1918. Motor launch from USS Huntington (Armored Cruiser # 5) leaving USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) with survivors from the American steamship Lucia. Fairfax is visible in the background. NH 41728
Immediately after the conflict came to a halt, Fairfax remained overseas, and, on 3 December 1918, she deployed to the Azores to the troop transport George Washington (Id. No. 3018) carrying President Woodrow Wilson, and escort her to Brest so that Wilson could attend the Versailles Peace Conference.
USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) view of the ship’s forward and midship superstructure, probably taken at Brest, France, in late 1918 after she shed her camouflage. Photographed by Zimmer. Note the small identification number painted below her pilothouse, canvas weather screens, and the 1-pounder automatic anti-aircraft gun mounted by her forward smokestacks. NH 54135
USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) in harbor, circa late 1918. Photographed by Zimmer. NH 54136
That mission completed, she sailed for home on 28 December, arriving at Norfolk on 8 January 1919.
Quiet Peacetime Interlude
No more camo! USS Fairfax (Destroyer # 93) at anchor, 11 October 1919. NH 54137
While many of the Navy’s new Wickes-class destroyers were soon mothballed following the “War to End all Wars”– and many of those later disposed of or converted to other roles such as minelaying/sweeping or tending seaplanes in the 1920s and 30s– the sun shined on Fairfax and, after helping shepherd the historic first aerial crossing of the Atlantic made by Navy seaplanes (towing the crippled NC-1 to shore), she was only laid up for not quite eight years, from 19 June 1922 to 1 May 1930, then recommissioned.
Incidentally, it was in 1920 that she served as the first command of LCDR (later VADM) Willis Augustus (Ching) Lee Jr. (USNA 1908), just after Lee returned from winning seven medals in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics and two decades before he would teach the Japanese just how good radar-controlled gunnery can be at night.
Once brought out of her short stint in mothballs, Fairfax’s peacetime role consisted primarily of conducting training cruises for both East and West Coast members of the Naval Reserve and summer cruises out of Annapolis carrying midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy to the Caribbean. She alternated this duty with regular gunnery exercises, fleet reviews, and fleet problems, a stint with the Special Service Squadron out of Balboa in the Canal Zone, and patrols in Cuban waters.
She was captured alongside at Annapolis on 18 March 1939 when the remains of Hiroshi Saito, the late Japanese Ambassador to the United States, were transferred to the cruiser USS Astoria (CA-34) for return to Japan.
Note the large hull numbers. Page from the Japan Times Weekly, published in Tokyo, 20 April 1939, page 523, NH 76141
She also participated in the 1939 New York City World’s Fair.
USS Fairfax (DD-93) at Poughkeepsie, New York, 17 June 1939. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. NH 67728
War, again
When Europe blew the lights out again in September 1939, Fairfax was assigned to the increasingly tense Atlantic neutrality patrol.
All was not calm on this duty, and a sistership, USS Greer (DD–145), was fired upon by German submarine U-652 in September 1941, leading to FDR’s “shoot on sight” order for threatening ships under American escort while supposedly at peace. The next month the destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245) was sunk by U-552 near Iceland, still six weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
However, by that point, Fairfax had already been transferred to the Admiralty.
White Ensign
With Europe again at war, on 2 September 1940, FDR signed the so-called Destroyers for Bases Agreement that saw a mix of 50 (mostly mothballed) Caldwell (3), Wickes (27), and Clemson (20)-class destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy in exchange for limited basing rights on nine British overseas possessions. Canada would receive seven of these ships including five Wickes, doubling the number of destroyers in the Canadian Navy in days.
In respect of Canada’s naming tradition for destroyers, all seven RCN flush deckers were named for Canadian rivers (repeated in 2024 by the way), ideally, those that ran in conjunction with the U.S. border, a nice touch. In British service, they would receive names of small cities, and be known therefore as the Town class.
Sailed by scratch USN crews from Philadelphia the “flush deckers” sailed to Halifax in several small groups to prepare for a warm handover.
Transfer of U.S. destroyers to the Royal Navy in Halifax, Sept 1940. Wickes-class destroyers USS Buchanan (DD-131), USS Crowninshield (DD-134), and USS Abel P. Upshur (DD-193) are in the background. The sailors are examining a 4-inch /50-cal deck gun. Twenty-three Wickes-class destroyers were transferred to the RN, along with four to the RCN, in 1940 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3199286)
Group of U.S. Navy and Royal Navy ratings who took part in the transfer of destroyers to the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, ca. 23-24 September 1940. LAC A104093
Naval ratings unloading a torpedo before the refit of an unidentified Town-class destroyer of the Royal Canadian Navy, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, March 1941. LAC A105202
Ratings of the Royal Navy taking over former U.S.N. destroyer at Halifax, 1940. LAC A104109
Union Jacks hoisted aboard former U.S.N. destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy, Halifax, 1940. LAC A104096
Decommissioned from the U.S. Navy on 23 October 1940 (she wasn’t struck from the U.S. Navy List until 8 January 1941), Fairfax was taken into custody by RCN personnel in Halifax on 26 November 1940, pending the arrival of an RN crew that would take her to St. Johns for repairs and across the Atlantic to Devonport for fitting British equipment.
During this period, she was commissioned as the sixth HMS Richmond (G 88) on the RN’s list going back to 1655. As such, she carried forth a trio of previous battle honors from those vessels: Quebec, 1759 – Havana, 1762, and Chesapeake, 1781.
Ready for action by June 1941, she was assigned to the 17th Escort Group based in Newfoundland and would ride shotgun on 11 convoys by the end of the year (HX 132, SC 034, OB 339, SC 037, HX 138, ON 001, TC 012B, HX 148, ON 017, SC 047, SC 048, and UR 017).
HMS Richmond G88 passing McNab’s Island, Halifax, NS, via Forposterity’s Sake
In her first convoy of 1942, UR 017, she had the misfortune of encountering the 10,000-ton type EC2-S-C1 Liberty ship SS Francis Scott Key, which crumpled her bow on 31 March 1942. This forced her to Liverpool for five months of repair, after which she was sent back to Halifax to rejoin her convoy defense mission. However, this was cut short when she suffered a collision with the Norwegian cargo steamer SS Reinholt (4801 gt), sending her back to Liverpool for repairs until June 1943.
Oh, Canada
Sent to Halifax once again to get back to convoy work, the twice-cracked Fairfax/Richmond was sheep-dipped into the Royal Canadian Navy, becoming HCMS Richmond in July 1943.
While in Canuk service, she chalked up another nine convoy runs (ON 198, ONS 016, HX 255, SC 142, ONS 018, XB 076, ON 204, HX 262, and ON 207) between just 22 August and Halloween.
The Red Banner
With the Soviets pouting over not getting an immediate slice of the surrendered/interned Italian Navy in late 1943, the Western Allies made a big push to send a nice package of mixed destroyers, submarines, subchasers, cruisers (USS Milwaukee), and even battleships (HMS Royal Sovereign) to appease Stalin. Of course, many of these ships were extremely worn out, mechanically unreliable, and had been repeatedly repaired– so you know Fairfax/Richmond was lumped into this bag.
With that, Fairfax reverted to RN service, arrived back in the Home Isles on 27 December 1943, was paid off, de-stored, and laid up in the Tyne where she sat until taken up by Palmer’s Yard for a brief refit pending transfer to the Russkis.
Her new crew arrived in early July for a fortnight of training on their new vessels, and, officially transferred on 16 July 1944 as Zhivuchy (011), after the name of a destroyer sunk in the Black Sea in 1916, she set out the next day for Loch Ewe as escort for HMS Royal Sovereign (now dubbed Archangelsk), along with seven other high-mileage Wickes/Clemson tin cans that had been part of the Bases for Destroyers deal (Derzkij, Dejatelnyj, Doblestnyj, Dostojnyj, Zarkij, Zguchij, and Zostkij), and 11 SC-497 class 105-foot subchasers. Interestingly, these “Town” class Wickes/Clemsons would be known as the Zhivuchy-class in Soviet service.
Tagging along with the 33-ship RN convoy JW59 for the White Sea, this little hodge podge of most third-hand warships sortied from Loch Ewe on 15 August and arrived in Soviet waters at the Kola Inlet ten days later. In the running ASW battle to get there, the convoy lost the British sloop HMS Kite (U 87) to U-344 (ace Kptlt. Ulrich Pietsch) which was in turn sunk by a Swordfish from the jeep carrier HMS Vindex (D 15). As a bonus, U-354 (ace Oblt. Hans-Jürgen Sthamer) was sunk on 24 August by HMS Mermaid and HMS Loch Dunvegan.
In Soviet service, Fairfax/Richmond/Zhivuchy, under Captain 3rd Rank Nikolay Dmitriyevich Ryabchenko, spent her career in ASW patrols in the frozen Barents and White Seas. While on such a beat with Dejatelnyj (ex-HMS Churchill, ex-USS Herndon, ex-CG-17) on 8 December, they came across a German U-boat that they had been bird-dogging for three days. When the steel shark broke the surface, Ryabchenko ordered Zhivuchy to ram.
According to Russian sources, it is believed Zhivuchy sank U-387 (Kptlt. Rudolf Büchler) with all hands, although Western sources generally chalk that boat up to the British corvette HMS Bamborough Castle (K412), in roughly the same area at the same time.
Sadly, Dejatelnyj would be sunk just a month later on 16 January 1945 by U-956 (Mohs), taking the commander and 116 men with her. Only seven men were picked up by the Derzkij.
The Northern Fleet destroyer Zhivuchiy (011) is seen wearing her Soviet pennant.
As for the end of her career, the Soviets kept their Wickes/Clemsons for several years after VJ-Day, even if they didn’t need them. Heck, the last one wasn’t returned until 1952!
Fairfax/Richmond/Zhivuchy was eventually repatriated to Rosyth in poor condition on 24 September 1949, scheduled immediately for disposal, and then broken up for scrap by BISCO at Grangemouth the following summer.
She earned two battle honors while under British/Canadian service: Atlantic 1941-43 – Arctic 1942.
Epilogue
Few relics remain of Fairfax. Her engineering drawings and some logs are in the National Archives.
Neither the U.S. nor Canadian fleets have added a second Fairfax or Richmond to their naval lists, however, the Royal Navy has commissioned a seventh Richmond, a Type 23 frigate (F239) that has been in service since 1995.
020612-N-9407M-518 The Atlantic Ocean (Jun. 11, 2002) — British frigate HMS Richmond (F-239) launches an AGM-84A “Harpoon” missile during a joint U.S. and British exercise in which the decommissioned ship USS Wainwright was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean. Ships used in these types of exercises are inspected and made environmentally safe before sinking, and are disguised to create reefs for marine life. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Isaac Merriman. (RELEASED)
She recently deployed to the Red Sea and fired the first Sea Ceptor combat launch in RN history.
Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.
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