Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Colhoun

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TypeTransport (AP)
HullAPD-2
BuilderFore River, Quincy
Launched1918-02-21
Commissioned1918-06-13
FateSunk. Wickes-class destroyer, DD-85, converted to the high-speed transport APD-2. This is not the later Colhoun, DD-801. She put Marines ashore at Tulagi on 7 August 1942. Aircraft sank her off Kukum on 30 August 1942. Not credited to one plane.
Command

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

Colhoun
USS Colhoun (APD-2) in port, early 1942, in Measure 12 (Modified). This is the high-speed transport, not the later destroyer. U.S. Navy photograph. Public domain.

USS Colhoun was a Wickes-class destroyer of the United States Navy, built at Fore River in Quincy. She was launched on 21 February 1918 and commissioned on 13 June 1918 as DD-85.

The destroyer hull was converted into a high-speed transport and redesignated APD-2. A later ship named Colhoun, DD-801, is a different hull.

On 7 August 1942 she took part in the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi. Serving as a high-speed transport, she put Marines ashore at Tulagi.

Little, McKean, and Gregory were with her when the Marines went ashore at Tulagi. George Bernard Madden was in command of Colhoun that day. Aircraft sank her off Kukum on 30 August 1942. The loss is not credited to one plane.

She went down as the high-speed transport APD-2, the hull that had entered service in 1918 as the destroyer DD-85. The Tulagi landing and the sinking off Kukum both came in August 1942.

The pictures on this page are the originals.