USS McKean was a United States Navy destroyer of the Wickes‑class. She was the first ship of the Navy to bear the name, which honors Thomas McKean, a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence.
Construction and commissioning
McKean was laid down on 11 April 1918 by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, California, under a contract awarded to the Navy’s Emergency Fleet Corporation. She was launched on 24 June 1918 and commissioned on 30 September 1918, with Lieutenant Commander C. S. Stephens in command.
Design and specifications
| Characteristic | Data |
|---|---|
| Class & type | Wickes‑class destroyer |
| Displacement | Approx. 1,060 t (standard) |
| Length | 314 ft 4 in (95.79 m) |
| Beam | 31 ft 8 in (9.65 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft 2 in (2.79 m) |
| Propulsion | 2× steam turbines, 4× Yarrow boilers, 27,000 shp (20 MW) |
| Speed | 35 kn (65 km/h) |
| Range | 2,500 nmi (4,630 km) at 20 kn |
| Complement | 100–110 officers and enlisted |
| Armament (as built) | 4× 4"/50 caliber guns, 1× 3"/23 caliber anti‑aircraft gun, 12× 21‑in (533 mm) torpedo tubes in four triple mounts |
Service history
World War I and immediate post‑war period – After commissioning, McKean joined the Atlantic Fleet. She completed a short shakedown cruise and was assigned to convoy escort and patrol duties in the Atlantic during the final weeks of World War I. Following the armistice, she continued to operate with the fleet, participating in training exercises and routine deployments along the eastern seaboard and the Caribbean.
Interwar years – McKean was placed in reserve on 1 May 1922 and decommissioned on 7 July 1922 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. In 1924 she was transferred to the United States Coast Guard for service in the “Rum Patrol,” a duty shared by several surplus destroyers of her class. She operated off the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico enforcing Prohibition. The Coast Guard returned the vessel to the Navy in 1931.
World II – The Navy recommissioned many former Wickes‑class destroyers for auxiliary roles during World II. Specific records of McKean’s reactivation and assignments during the conflict are limited. Some sources indicate that she may have been used as a training ship or as a target vessel, but definitive documentation is lacking.
Decommissioning and final disposition
McKean was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 July 1936. She was sold to the Boston Iron & Metal Company on 25 November 1936 for scrapping.
Legacy
USS McKean (DD‑90) is representative of the rapid wartime shipbuilding program of the United States during the final year of World War I. Though her active service was brief, she, like many of her sister ships, contributed to the post‑war development of U.S. naval tactics and provided valuable hulls for the Coast Guard’s interdiction duties during Prohibition.
Note: Detailed operational logs for USS McKean’s activities during the 1930s and World War II are not widely available in open‑source naval archives; consequently, certain aspects of her later service remain insufficiently documented.
