The second USS Hamilton (DD–141) was a in the United States Navy following World War I, later reclassified DMS-18 for service in World War II. Namesake Archibald Hamilton was born c. 1790, the son of Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton. He was appointed Midshipman on 18 May 1809 and assigned to work with a new kind of hollow shot needed by frigate . He next sailed for Europe on on 31 January 1811 carrying dispatches for American officers in the Mediterranean. On his return to the United States, Hamilton was assigned to on which he won commendation from his commanding officer, Captain Stephen Decatur, for gallantry in action during the capture of British frigate on 25 October 1812. Decatur selected him to bear the captured British flags to Washington. Appointed Acting Lieutenant on 21 December 1812 and Lieutenant on 24 July 1813, Hamilton served throughout the War of 1812, only to be killed shortly after the Treaty of Ghent had formally ended the war. Because of the slow communications of the day, word of peace had not reached New York by 15 January 1815 when the frigate , commanded by Captain Decatur and having Hamilton as one of her lieutenants, ran the blockade out of that port. The next day British men-of-war , and overtook and captured President after a long and bloody running fight in which Hamilton was killed. He was the last U.S. Navy officer to die in the War of 1812. Construction and commissioning Hamilton was launched on 15 January 1919 by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, sponsored by Miss Dolly Hamilton Hawkins, great-grand-niece of Archibald Hamilton. The ship was commissioned on 7 November 1919. Service history Based at San Diego, Hamilton participated in battle practice and maneuvers along the California coast with Destroyer Squadron 17. In mid-1920 she also took part in torpedo and smoke screen operations in Hawaii. Battle practice and other readiness operations ranging across the Pacific to Hawaii continued until Hamilton decommissioned at San Diego on 20 July 1922. Hamilton recommissioned on 20 January 1930 and, after shakedown, reached her new home port, Norfolk, on 26 November. She served with the Scouting Force, operating along the East Coast throughout 1931, and then returned to San Diego in January 1932. After a year of plane guard duty and battle exercises along the California coast, Hamilton again shifted to the East Coast, reaching Norfolk