USS Kalk (DD-170)

The first USS Kalk (DD–170) was a Wickes class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I, later transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Hamilton (I-24) and then into the Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS Hamilton (I-24).

As USS Kalk
Named for Stanton Frederick Kalk, Kalk, laid down as Rodgers 4 March 1917, was launched 21 December 1918, by the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation, Quincy, Massachusetts; sponsored by Mrs. Flora Stanton Kalk, mother of Lieutenant Kalk; renamed Kalk 23 December 1918; and commissioned at Boston 29 March 1919, Lieutenant Commander N. R. Van der Veer in command.

After shakedown off Newport, Kalk departed Boston 3 May for Newfoundland. Arriving Trespassey 5 May, she sailed 3 days later for the mid-Atlantic to provide rescue cover during the pioneer flight of Navy seaplane NC-4 from Newfoundland to the Azores 16 to 17 May. After returning to Boston 20 May, she sailed for Europe 10 July, arriving Brest, France, 21 July. Proceeding via England to Hamburg, Germany, she arrived 27 July to begin a 3-week cruise through the Baltic Sea, visiting Baltic and Scandinavian countries on American Relief Administration operations. She returned to Brest 23 August to serve as a dispatch and escort ship until departing for the United States 25 January 1920.

Arriving Boston 12 February, she trained reserves of the 1st Naval District and operated with DesRon 3 along the Atlantic Coast from Cape Cod to Charleston. As a result of the Five Power Naval Treaty, which was signed at the Washington Conference 6 February 1922, Kalk departed Boston 10 May for Philadelphia, where she decommissioned 10 July and was placed in reserve.

When war in Europe threatened the security of the entire world, Kalk recommissioned 17 June 1940, Lt. T. P. Elliott in command; departing Philadelphia 26 July, she arrived Charleston the 31st for duty with the Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic. Kalk was one of 50 overage 4-pipers turned over to Britain in exchange for strategic bases in the Atlantic under terms of the "Destroyers for Bases Agreement" of 2 September. She cleared Charleston 7 September and steamed via Hampton Roads and Newport to Halifax, Nova Scotia, arriving 18 September. Kalk decommissioned 23 September and was turned over to the British the same day.

As HMS Hamilton
Commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Hamilton, which was a placename common to both the UK and US, she collided with HMS Georgetown (formerly Maddox, DD-168) at St. John's, Newfoundland, 1 October while en route to England. Proceeding to Saint John, New Brunswick, for repairs, she went aground and suffered extensive damage. Because of a British manpower shortage, she was manned by Canadians during and after repair operations. Hamilton was modified for trade convoy escort service by removal of three of the original 4"/50 caliber guns and one of the triple torpedo tube mounts to reduce topside weight for additional depth charge stowage and installation of hedgehog anti-submarine weapon.

As HMCS Hamilton
Late in June 1941 she commissioned in the Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS Hamilton fitting within the Canadian practice of naming destroyers after Canadian rivers —the Hamilton River of Labrador.

Throughout her active service, she remained in North American waters, protecting convoys from St. John's to New York. On 2 August 1942, she sighted and attacked a German U-boat and, by forcing it to submerge, prevented an attack on the convoy. Declared unfit for operations 11 August 1943, she became a tender to HMCS Cornwallis at Annapolis, Nova Scotia. Declared surplus 1 April 1945, she decommissioned 8 June at Sydney, Nova Scotia. HMCS Hamilton departed Sydney 6 July under tow for Baltimore, Maryland, where she was sold for scrapping by the Boston Iron & Metal Company, but was lost while being towed to Boston.