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Gunboat Photo Archive

Paducah (PG 18)

Call sign:
Nan - Easy - Sugar - Charlie

ex-Paducah (IX 23)
ex-Paducah (AG 7)
ex-Paducah (Gunboat No. 18)

Call sign (1912):
Nan - Oboe - Boy

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

Struck from the Naval Register 17 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 Geulah, 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)
120901805	818k	Underway in Long Island Sound, 07 October 1905 Library of Congress photo LC-B2-11-14 via Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum	Darryl Baker
	110k	Gibraltar	David Smith
	212k	Stern view of the Paducah in dry dock at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, New Hampshire, prior to World War I Courtesy of Mr. Jacoby Naval History and Heritage Command photo 42991	Mike Green
	208k	Bow view of the Paducah in dry dock at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, New Hampshire, prior to World War I. Gunboat astern is either Marietta (Gunboat 15) or Wheeling (Gunboat 14) Courtesy of Mr. Jacoby Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 42992	Mike Green
	201k	In drydock at the Portsmouth Navy Yard New Hampshire in September, 1916. On left is Patrol Yacht USS Eagle, (1898-1920) Courtesy of John G. Krieger, 1967 Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 43475	Mike Green
USS Paducah (PG 18)
	48k		Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
	170k		Robert Hurst
	39k	Are we finished scrubbing the decks yet?	Tommy Trampp
	260k	18 January 1921 Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, VA Officers and crew of USS Paducah (PG-18) posing aboard their ship Photo by Crosby and Falck, 11 Portland St., Boston, MA from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum U.S. Navy photo S-146-M	Naval History and Heritage Command Photo added 21 December 2021
USS Paducah (IX 23)
	39k	1 November 1924 Laid up for the winter Photo by Hugh McKenzie from University of Wisconsin-Madison Digital Library	John Spivey
Paducah
	126k	Paducah tied up at Miami, Florida in early 1947 after her partial refit, and sale to the Weston Trading Company for $77,500. Photo from "The Jews' Secret Fleet" by Murray S. Greenfield and Joseph M. Hochstein, Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem and New York	Robert Hurst
Geulah
	110k	Fitting out as a Palestine immigrant blockade runner, probably at a Florida port on March 5, 1947 Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1983 Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 94973	Mike Green
	174k	c. 1947 Geulah being intercepted by HMS Mermaid [U 30] off the coast of Palestine Photo from the collection of the late Eric Wheatley, formerly of HMS Mermaid [U 30]	Colin Yarwood
	473k	Geulah being boarded by British troops after she had been towed into the port of Haifa, during the night of 2 October 1947. Photo from "The Jews' Secret Fleet" by Murray S. Greenfield and Joseph M. Hochstein, Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem and New York	Robert Hurst

Commanding Officers
01	CDR Albert Gustavus Winterhalter, USN - USNA Class of 1873 Awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal (1920) - Retired as Rear Admiral	2 September 1905 - 21 September 1906
02	LT John Wills Greenslade, USN - USNA Class of 1899 Awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal (1920) - Retired as Vice Admiral	21 September 1906
03	CDR John Lewis Purcell, USN	29 December 1908
04	CDR William Wirt Gilmer, USN - USNA Class of 1885 Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Captain	11 January 1910 - 16 May 1910
05	CDR George Grant Mitchell, USN	16 May 1910
06	LCDR Edward Constant Southworth Parker, USN	8 March 1916
07	CDR Hilary Herbert Royall, USN - USNA Class of 1899 Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Captain	1918
08	LCDR John Treadwell Bowers, USN - USNA Class of 1899	16 August 1920 - 9 September 1921
09	LCDR Joseph Carhart, Jr., USNR	1929 - 1931
10	CDR Antoine Oliver Rabideau, USNR - Retired as Rear Admiral	1931 - 6 July 1942
11	CDR Francis David Hurd, USNR	6 July 1942 - August 1944
12	LCDR Robert Edward Seltzer, USNR	August 1944 - 7 September 1945

Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan

View the Paducah (PG 18)
DANFS History entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website

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This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by David L. Wright

Last Updated 30 January 2025

NavSource Online:Gunboat Photo Archive

Paducah (PG 18)

ex-Paducah (IX 23)ex-Paducah (AG 7)ex-Paducah (Gunboat No. 18)

NavSource Online:
Gunboat Photo Archive

ex-Paducah (IX 23)
ex-Paducah (AG 7)
ex-Paducah (Gunboat No. 18)