İzmir'in Kurtuluşundan 19 Gün Sonra Gönderilen 12 ABD Gemisi

New York Times Gazetesi'nin 28 Eylül 1922 tarihli haberinde ABD'nin 12 savaş gemisinden oluşan yeni bir filonun İstanbul'da görev yapmakta olan Amiral Bristol emrine gönderilmesinin acilen kararlaştırıldığı haber verilmektedir. Bu arada Londra'da bu gemilerin zaten Avrupa'da olduğu söylentisi çıkmış olmalı ki ilgili bakanın açıklaması bir gün sonraki gazetede haber yapılarak bu yeni filonun Norfolk'tan hareket edeceği yazılmaktadır. Diğer ilginç bir bilgi ise, ABD gemilerinde yeterli Türkiye bölgesi hyaritalarının olmaması nedeniyle 12.000 $ sarfedilerek bunların İngilizlerden sayfa başı 1 $ fiyatla satın alındıklarının belirtilmesidir. İlgili haber ve gemilerin tarihi bilgilerini diğer sayfalarda veriyorum.

Uzak ama bize böylesine yakınlık duyan bu komşumuzun çabasını duyurmak istedim.

Bu filonun Amiral Gemisi olan USS Sturtevant 240'nin İzmit'te olduğu sıra verdiği 1922 Noel Partisi'nin davetiyesinin resmini burada vermek istiyorum. Bu ilginç filonun o tarihe kadar 50.000 mil tutan “Norfolk-İsmid” arası yolculuğunda Anadolu limanlarının hangilerinin ziyaret edilmiş olduğu da belirtilmiş durumdadır.

Operational and Building Data : Laid down by New York Shipbuilding on May 27 1919. Stricken August 13 1945. Fate : Sold November 30 1945 and broken up for scrap.Bainbridge operated along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean with the fleet carrying out tactical exercises and maneuvers until October 1922, when she departed for Constantinople to join the Naval Detachment, Turkish Waters. On 16 December 1922 she rescued approximately 500 survivors of the burning French military transport Vinh-Long about 10 miles off Constantinople. For extraordinary heroism during the rescue Lieutenant Commander W. A. Edwards received the Medal of Honor.

USS BAINBRIDGE (DD-246)

Operational and Building DataLaid down by New York Shipbuilding on July 26 1919. Launched October 28 1920.Fate Barry was irreparably damaged by Japanese Kamikaze May 25 1945 and was used as a decoy hulk until sunk in June 1945.Barry was held in reserve commission until 15 November 1921 when she was placed in full commission and reported to the Atlantic Fleet. In October 1922 she departed Hampton Roads, Va., for the Mediterranean where she served with the U. S. Naval Detachment in Turkish Waters until July 1923. USS BARRY (DD-248)

Operational and Building DataLaunched March 17 1919. Sold May 9 1947 and broken up for scrap. During early 1922, Hatfield operated from Charleston, and on 2 October departed for the Mediterranean to join the U.S. detachment in Turkish waters where she remained on patrol duty until 31 July 1923, visiting many ports including Smyrna, Jaffa, Bierut, Rhodes, and Varna.

USS HATFIELD (DD-231)Operational and Building DataLaunched June 12 1919. Sold November 12 1946 and broken up for scrap.She arrived at Constantinople, Turkey, 21 September reporting for duty with U.S. Naval Detachment Operating in Turkish Waters. Fox cruised in the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea until July 1922, visiting various ports of Turkey, Greece, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Rumanian, Russia and Egypt. Departing Constantinople for the United States on 8 July 1922, she departed Norfolk 2 October 1922 and arrived Constantinople on the 22d. Here she engaged in communication and intelligence duty in Turkish Waters until 18 July 1923, when she sailed for the United States.

USS FOX (DD-234)

Operational and Building DataLaunched May 24 1919 and commissioned April 30 1920. Sold December 3 1946 and broken up for scrap.From 27 August 1920 to 11 August 1923 Gilmer made two round trip transatlantic voyages out of New York to European and Mediterranean ports. She subsequently engaged in training exercises along the Eastern seaboard, in the Caribbean, and out of West Coast ports until 1938.

USS GILMER (DD-233)Operational and Building DataLaunched June 2 1920 and commissioned January 19 1921. Sold November 30 1945 for scrap.Departing Norfolk on 14 October 1922, she cruised primarily in the eastern Mediterranean, putting in at ports in Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Greece, and Rumania. Goff participated in this humanitarian service, particularly at Marsina, where from 18 to 20 July 1923 she supervised evacuation of hundreds of Turkish refugees.

USS GOFF (DD-247)

Operational and Building DataLaunched June 26 1920 and commissioned March 21 1921. Hopkins sailed from Hampton Roads 2 October 1922, and reached Constantinople 22 October for duty in Turkish waters. She departed Constantinople 18 May 1923 for New York, arriving 12 June.

USS HOPKINS (DD-249)Operational and Building DataLaunched August 12 1919. Sold June 21 1946 and broken up for scrap. On 3 July 1922 she reached Constantinople for relief work in Turkish waters. She returned to Newport 23 August. She sailed 2 October with Destroyer Squadron 14 to evacuate refugees and perform other relief work in Asia Minor. She arrived in Constantinople 22 October, and was constantly used to carry supplies, medical aid, refugees and relief officials between ports of the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. She departed Constantinople 18 May 1923. USS KANE (DD-235)

Operational and Building DataLaunched October 14 1920. Sold September 29 1946 and broken up for scrap.King cleared Hampton Roads 2 October 1921 for her first Mediterranean cruise. Arriving Smyrna, Turkey, 8 November, the destroyer received 300 Greek refugees for transport to Mitylene, Greece. The destroyer served as station ship during the Crimean Crisis, remaining in Turkish waters until June 1923. USS KING (DD-242)

Operational and Building DataLaunched March 30 1920. Sold October 29 1946 and broken up for scrap.In July 1922 she continued eastward, and at Constantinople, on the 31st, she joined ships of the Turkish Waters detachment.

USS McFARLAND (DD-237)Operational and Building DataLaunched July 10 1919. Sold November 30 1945 and broken up for scrap.Departing New York, 14 September, she joined the Black Sea Detachment at Constantinople, 5 October. For the next year and a half she performed quasi-diplomatic and humanitarian roles necessitated by the aftermath of World War I. Cruising regularly to Caucasian, Rumanian, and Turkish Black Sea ports, she also steamed into the Mediterranean to visit Levantine cities. She distributed relief supplies, provided transportation and communication services and relocated refugees. Much of the latter was accomplished following the capitulation of General Peter N. Wrangel's White Army to Bolshevik forces in the Crimea in November 1920.

USS OVERTON (DD-239)

In July, 1922, Overton returned to the US for abbreviated exercises with the Scouting Fleet and, then, in October, as Turkish-Greek hostilities flared at Smyrna, rejoined the Turkish Waters Detachment for another six month tour.

Operational and Building DataLaunched July 29 1919.Fate Struck mine and sank off Key West Fla. April 26 1942. It was an American-laid minefield and no one on board was notified of the field's location in the area. 15 of her crew were lost with the ship and remain on duty. On 16 June 1921, the destroyer was reassigned from the Adriatic detachment to the Constantinople detachment and, three days later, commenced docking and overhaul at Constantinople. During this assignment Sturtevant conducted drills in the Sea of Marmara, between the twin straits, the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, and operated in the Black Sea. She visited Samsun, Turkey; Burgas, Bulgaria; and Sulina and Braila on the Rumanian coast. From 25 October to 28 November, she flew the flag of Admiral Bristol. Following this duty, the ship visited the ports of Beirut and Joffa and then Alexandria, Egypt, and the Isle of Rhodes. In late December, she returned to Turkey at Samsun, thence to Constantinople in January 1922 before reentering the Black Sea to visit southern Russia. Between 1921 and 1923, the Russian Civil War and a drought brought a great famine to Russia, particularly to the usually food-rich Volga region of southern Russia. America responded with nearly a million short tons of food which the Bolsheviks accepted grudgingly and often as surreptitiously as possible. Sturtevant investigated potential ports of debarkation in southern Russia for the supplies soon to be shipped by the American Relief Administration. To this end, she visited Odessa, Sevastopol, Novorossisk; Theodosia, and Yalta between early February and mid-April. Thereafter, through the end of the year, she made voyages across the Black Sea to various Russian ports in conjunction with the relief operation. She stopped at numerous other foreign ports on the voyages, including Samsun, Trebizond, and Mudania, Turkey. From July to October, she made a round-trip voyage back to the United States, during which she was overhauled at the New York Navy Yard and exercised out of Yorktown, Va.On 1 October, Sturtevant was ordered back to the eastern Mediterranean and, the following day, got underway for Gibraltar.

USS STURTEVANT (DD-240)

She arrived there on the 14th and continued on to Turkey, reaching Mudania on the 27th. For the next seven months, the destroyer visited the ports of the eastern Mediterranean and those along the coast of the Black Sea. In addition to ports of call of the previous cruises, she visited Varna, Bulgaria; Mersina and Smyrna, Turkey, Piraeus, Greece and Naples, Italy. From the latter port, she sailed for Gibraltar in late May of 1923 and, by 12 June, was back at the Navy Yard in New York. She operated along the Atlantic seaboard through the end of the year, conducting gunnery exercises in October at the southern drill grounds off Virginia. In November, the ship paid an Armistice Day visit to Baltimore, Md. Three days before the end of the year, Sturtevant became flagship of Division 41, Squadron 14, Scouting Fleet.

The Clemson (DD) Class Displacement: 1,308 tons full loadLength: 314 feet 4 inchesBeam: 30 feet 10 inchesDraught: 9 feet 10 inches

Performance: 27,000 shp for 35 knotsBunkerage: 375 tonsRange: 2,500 nautical miles Guns: four 4 inch; one 3 inchTorpedoes: twelve 21 inch