Memphis in the Military

Loss of USS Memphis, 29 August 1916

At three in the afternoon of 29 August 1916, the 14,500-ton armored cruiser Memphis and the 1177-ton gunboat Castine were riding gently, anchored in the open roadstead off Santo Domingo, capital city of the Dominican Republic. Rear Admiral Charles F. Pond, for whom Memphis was flagship, and a recreation party were ashore and the remainder of the ships' officers and crews were engaged in normal duties. Far away somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean or Caribbean Sea, a seismic event had already generated a powerful tsunami, or tidal wave, as such things were then termed. One of the two ships would barely escape its effects, while the other would be driven ashore a complete wreck. More than forty men would lose their lives.

The big cruiser's remaining officers and men, many of them badly injured, were brought ashore by ship to shore lines, hastily rigged by U.S. Marines, Navy personnel and local residents. USS Memphis, so thoroughly damaged as to be not worth refloating, remained just off Santo Domingo's shoreline for many years, a monument to a sudden tsunami, one of nature's most unforseeable and powerful forces.

The story of the "The Spirit of Beale Street" goes beyond an airplane.
In 1942, when the world was at war, Lt. G.W. Lee and other African-American civic and business leaders in Memphis organized the second war bond drive in the Negro community. This drive raised a remarkable $303,000, the amount needed to build a B-24 Consolidated Liberator bomber. The name chosen for this bomber was the "The Spirit of Beale Street," reflecting the personality and foundation of the community that paid.

There was another ship the USS Memphis ( CL-13) 1925-1947 a 7050-ton Omaha class light cruiser

And a sub USS Memphis (SSN-691) April 3, 1976 - April 1, 2011 a Los Angeles class