USS Biddle (TB-26)

History
United States
Name	Biddle
Namesake	Captain Nicholas Biddle
Ordered	4 May 1898 (authorized)
Builder	Bath Iron Works, Bath, ME
Laid down	21 February 1900
Launched	18 May 1901[1]
Sponsored by	Miss Emily B. Biddle, great-great-grandniece of Captain Biddle
Commissioned	26 October 1901
Decommissioned	12 March 1919
Renamed	Coast Torpedo Boat No. 12, 1 August 1918
Identification	TB-26
Fate	Sold, 19 July 1920
General characteristics [2]
Class and type	Bagley-class torpedo boat
Displacement	175 long tons (178 t)[3]
Length	157 ft (48 m)
Beam	17 ft 8 in (5.38 m)
Draft	4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) (mean)[3]
Installed power	2 × Normand boilers 4,200 ihp (3,100 kW)
Propulsion	vertical triple expansion engine 2 × screw propellers
Speed	28.6 knots (53.0 km/h; 32.9 mph) 28.54 kn (32.84 mph; 52.86 km/h) (Speed on Trial)[3]
Complement	28 officers and enlisted
Armament	3 × 1-pounder (37 mm (1.46 in)) guns 3 × 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes (3x1)

The first USS Biddle (Torpedo Boat No. 26/TB-26/Coast Torpedo Boat No. 12) was a torpedo boat in the United States Navy. She was named for Captain Nicholas Biddle.

Biddle was launched 18 May 1901 by Bath Iron Works, Ltd., Bath, Maine; sponsored by Miss Emily B. Biddle, great-great-grandniece of Captain Biddle; and commissioned 26 October 1901, Lieutenant S. S. Robison in command.

Biddle departed Newport, Rhode Island, 1 November 1901 for Port Royal, South Carolina where she went into reserve. Following recommissioning 28 May 1902 she cruised with the Torpedo Boat Flotilla along the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies until January 1903. She went into reserve again 16 February 1903 at Norfolk Navy Yard and remained there until recommissioned 14 May 1909. Biddle spent the summer cruising with the Atlantic Torpedo Fleet and then went into reserve at Charleston Navy Yard 18 November 1909. In October 1911 she shifted to the Reserve Flotilla Division at Annapolis, Maryland, and went into ordinary at the Naval Academy, 13 March 1914.

After serving with the Pennsylvania Naval Militia (June–September 1915) Biddle reverted to the Annapolis Reserve torpedo Division. Recommissioned 6 April 1917 she served in the 5th Naval District as a patrol and despatch vessel at Norfolk. Biddle was renamed Coast Torpedo Boat No. 12, 1 August 1918.

Ordered to Philadelphia Navy Yard in January 1919, she was decommissioned 12 March 1919 and sold 19 July 1920.