Rhode Island Picture Post Cards
USS Morris TB-14 (Torpedo Boat) Firing a Whitehead Mark 3 Torpedo
Divided Back Postcard August 7, 1908 - Posted Newport, RI
(Scroll down for Background Information and History)

The keel of  the USS Morris (TB-14)  was laid down by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company of Bristol, Rhode Island on November 19, 1897. She was launched on April 13, 1898 and commissioned on May 11, 1898 with Lieutenant C. E. Fox in Command. She was the fifth Naval vessel to bear the name Morris.

After her shakedown cruise, the Torpedo Boat was assigned to the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, Rhode Island for range tender and training services until World War I, after which she was assigned patrol duties.  The Morris patrolled the West Indies from April 19, 1918 until March 1919, when she was reclassified as Coast Torpedo Boat Number 6 and returned to Newport.

Morris was decommissioned on March 24, 1919, however she served as a torpedo range tender for five additional years. She was the last of the "old torpedo boats." Morris was struck from the Naval Register on January 24, 1924 and sold at public auction on October 10, 1924.

Morris was 139 feet and 6 inches in length overall with a beam of 15 feet 6 inches and a draft of 4 feet 1 inch. She carried a crew of 26 and was equipped with 3 one-pond guns and 3 eighteen-inch torpedo tubes. There were 35 Torpedo Boats constructed in all; 7 of these, including Morris were laid down at the Herreshoff Shipyard in Bristol.

The Post Card above shows the Morris in Narragansett Bay, after she had just fired a Whitehead Mark 3 Torpedo from her deck launcher. The card was sent from Newport, Rhode Island on August 7, 1908 from Andrew, who was most likely stationed at the Torpedo Station.