O'Brien Class Destroyer - Ships in Class

Ships in Class

All six members of the class served in the Atlantic or Caribbean throughout their U.S. Navy careers. In October 1916, with the United States still neutral in World War I, five of the six class members (all except Nicholson) were among the U.S. destroyers sent out to rescue survivors from five ships torpedoed by German submarine U-53 off the Lightship Nantucket.

After the United States entered the war in April 1917, all six class members were sent overseas to Queenstown, Ireland, for convoy escort and anti-submarine duties. McDougal was in the first group of six American destroyers that arrived at Queenstown on 4 May; Ericsson and Winslow followed in the second group, which arrived thirteen days later, and Cushing, Nicholson, and O'Brien in the third group, a week after that. Several of the ships had encounters with U-boats during the war: Nicholson, working with Fanning in November 1917, helped to sink U-58, which was the first U-boat sunk by the U.S. Navy; earlier, in June, O'Brien had depth-charged U-16 and was thought by the British Admiralty to have seriously damaged the U-boat, but post-war analysis of records showed that U-16 survived the attack and returned safely to port.

All six ships returned to the United States in January 1919 and served in various roles over the next two years. Cushing was decommissioned in August 1920, followed by Nicholson and McDougal in May 1922, and the remaining three in the following month. In June 1924, two of the six ships—Ericsson and McDougal—were reactivated for service with the United States Coast Guard's "Rum Patrol". Ericsson was returned to the U.S. Navy in May 1932, and McDougal in June 1933; both were sold for scrapping in 1934. O'Brien was sold for scrapping in 1935, and the remaining three in June 1936.