The hull number '218' identifies this four-stack destroyer as USS Pope, a Clemson-class ship of the U.S. Navy's Asiatic Fleet, photographed in Chinese waters with sailors standing on an adjacent floating dock and a seaplane moored nearby. Pope served on the China station throughout the interwar period before being lost with much of her crew during the Battle of the Java Sea in March 1942, making this photograph a poignant record of the ship in more peaceful times. Project: 218358