TUTUILA PR 4

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Shallow-draft River Gunboat
Keel Laid October 17 1926 - Launched June 14 1927


1. USS TUTUILA PG-44
   Commissioned March 2 1928
   
   
2. USS TUTUILA PR-4
   Reclassified River Gunboat (PR) June 15 1928
   Stranded in Chungking by advancing Japanese forces October 1938
   Decommissioned January 18 1942
   
   
3. MEI YUAN (Chinese Nationalist Force)
   Leased to Nationalist China March 19 1942
   
   Struck from Navy Register March 25 1942
   Permanently transferred to Nationalist China February 17 1948
   
   Abandoned and scuttled at Shanghai to prevent capture by Communist Chinese forces

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. Covers Page 1    (1934-41)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Date From to Date To	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 3 (AC-BTT) "YANGTZE / PATROL"

1939-03-20 to 1939-03-20

Sailor's Mail with a special marking from Lt. Kemp Tolley, later RAdm. Tolley.

 

Locy Type 3 (AC-BTT) "YANGTZE / PATROL"

1939-03-20 to 1939-03-20

Close-up view of the special "Sailor's Mail" marking from Lt. Kemp Tolley, later RAdm. Tolley.

 

Locy Type 3 (AC-BTT) "CHUNGKING / CHINA"

1939-11-25 to 1939-11-25

Note:

 

Locy Type 5s(C) "HANKOW / CHINA"

1933-09-02 to 1933-09-02

Note:

 

Locy Type SLKbs (32x3.5)

1933-09-02 to 1933-09-02

Note:

 

Locy Type 5s "CHUNGKING / CHINA"

1934-09-07 to 1934-09-07

Note:

 

Locy Type 5s "CHUNGKING / CHINA"

1934-09-07 to 1934-09-07

Insert with Naval Mail Clerk's signature and rate.

 

Locy Type 5s "CHUNGKING / CHINA"

1934-10-27 to 1934-10-27

Navy Day, cachet by C. Wright Richell

 

Locy Type 5s "ICHANG / CHINA"

1936-01-02 to 1936-01-02

Note:

 

Locy Type F "CHASI / CHINA" USCS Postmark Catalog Illus. T-53

1935-11-11 to 1935-11-11

Armistice Day. The Chinese characters in T-53 are a phonetic spelling of "TUTUILA."

 

Other Information

NAMESAKE - An island in American Samoa

 

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