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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USRC Oriole
ex
 USS Dale (I) (1839 - 1904)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons
Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right

Civil War Medal - Mexican War Service Medal
Sloop-of-War :
  • Laid down, date unknown, at Philadelphia Navy Yard
  • Launched, 8 November 1839
  • Commissioned USS Dale, 11 December 1839, CDR. J. Gwinn in command
  • Departed Norfolk, VA., 13 December for duty on the Pacific Station, based at Valparaiso, Chile
  • Returned to New York in October 1843, placed in ordinary
  • Refitted, placed in commission, reassigned to the Pacific Station in 1846, at Valparaiso
  • USS Dale participated in the Mexican War from January 1847 to February 1848
  • Returned to New York in October 1848, placed in ordinary, 22 August 1849
  • Recommissioned in August 1850, assigned to slave trade suppression duties off the coast of Africa
  • Decommissioned in May 1859, at Portsmouth, N.H. Navy Yard
  • Recommissioned, 30 June 1861, to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, as store and guard ship at Port Royal, S.C.
  • Reassigned to Key West, 10 December 1862, as ordnance store ship
  • Decommissioned at Philadelphia, 20 July 1865 and placed in ordinary at Norfolk
  • Recommissioned, 29 May 1867, to serve as training ship at the US Naval Academy
  • Reassigned in 1884 as receiving ship at Washington Navy Yard
  • Transferred to the Maryland Naval Militia in 1895, renamed Oriole, 30 November 1904
  • Transferred to the United States Revenue Service at Baltimore, 23 July 1906
  • Served as dormitory-barracks ship for the cadets in the School of Instruction at Arundel Cove, MD. Maryland. Revenue Captain J. P.
  • Final Disposition, sold in November 1921, fate unknown
    Specifications:
    Displacement 566 t.
    Length 117'
    Beam 32'
    Draft 15' 8"
    Speed 13 kts
    Complement 150
    Armament
    fourteen 32-pdrs
    two 12-pdrs
    Propulsion Sail
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By
    USS Dale
    Constellation 152k View of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. waterfront area, circa the late 1860s, looking northeast from the tower of New Quarters. The twin-turret monitor moored in the Severn River, at left, is USS Tonawanda. Ships at the pier in right center are USS Constellation, USS Dale and USS Santee. Note the small tug on the beach at left, apparently under construction or undergoing a major overhaul, and the side-wheel steamer at the dock.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 49813         		Robert Hurst
    Dale 92k Sepia wash drawing by R.G. Skerrett, 1903 of USS Dale.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 44611, courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Pensacola 98k Sheet from Midshipman Richard G. Davenport, USN, annotated diary, covering the Summer of 1867, when he was on board USS Dale for the US Naval Academy Midshipmen's cruise. It also features a picture of Dale and a hand-written description of the ship and the cruise.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # Photo #: NH 43857, courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Davenport Collection.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Wyandank 172k Ships moored at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD. in 1879 are from left to right: USS Dale USS Constellation and USS Santee. The marine barracks Wyandank is in the center of the photo. Darryl Baker
    Dale 138k USS Dale moored at the US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD., while serving as practice ship. Probably photographed circa the early 1880s.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # Photo #: NH 61572, from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Constellation 63k A view of the waterfront at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, circa 1886, with the floating drydock at left. Ships present are (from left to right): USS Constellation; USS Dale; USS Tallapoosa; and USS Constitution (housed over).
    Photo courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, 1971.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo #: NH 58947    		 Robert Hurst
    Dale 103k USS Dale housed over while serving as receiving ship at the Washington Navy Yard, District of Columbia, circa 1884-1894.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # Photo #: NH 55852, from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Dale 800k View of the Washington Navy Yard waterfront looking east from the top of the western shiphouse, circa 1884-1894. The old experimental battery building is in the lower center, the eastern shiphouse is in the left background with the old 11th Street Bridge crossing the Anacostia River in the center and right background. The receiving ship alongside the waterfront is USS Dale. Moored offshore is a Canonicus class monitor.
    US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # Photo #: NH 57930, from the collections of the US Naval History and Heritage Command.    		 US Naval History and Heritage Command
    Oriole
    Dale 218k Oriole below deck area converted into a social function hall, while serving as a cadet dormitory at the School of Instruction at Arundel Cove, MD., circa 1909.
    Photo from the collection of the Jamison and Coffin families of Baltimore, MD.    		 Tommy Trampp
    USS Dale (I)
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)
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    Last Updated 18 January 2019