$70.00 CAD
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Three photo postcards from March 19th 1918 showing damaged destroyer USS Manley, after an accidental explosion of her depth charges. Thirty four people were killed.
“USS MANLEY SHORTLY AFTER EXPLOSION” (written on negative)
Collection stamp on back. Smudges on back.
“USS MANLEY SHORTLY AFTER EXPLOSION” (written on negative)
Photo album paper remnants in corners. (written in ink, test written on negative)
Smudges on back.
“The explosion on board U.S.S. Manley” i(n ink on front)
Written on negative "Drayton alongside of ??"
Smudges on back.
USS Manley was laid down on 22 August 1916 by the Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine; launched on 23 August 1917; sponsored by Miss Dorothy S. Sewall; and commissioned on 15 October 1917.
Manley sailed in company with Battleship Division Nine on 25 November 1917 to join the convoy escort and patrol forces based at Queenstown, Ireland. On the morning of 19 March 1918, while Manley escorted a convoy, she rolled against the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Montagua, which caused the accidental detonation of Manley's depth charges. Her stern was practically destroyed, and 33 enlisted men as well as her executive officer, Lt. Comdr. Richard M. Elliot Jr., were killed in the subsequent explosion. Fragments pierced two 50-US-gallon drums of gasoline and two tanks containing 100 US gallons of alcohol. The leaking fluids caught fire as they ran along the deck and enveloped the ship in flames which were not extinguished until late that night.
WIKIPEDIA
Manley remained adrift until British tugs Blazer and Cartmel took her in tow after daylight on 20 March. She reached Queenstown at dusk the following day with more than 70 feet of her hull awash or completely under water.
