USS Aylwin (DD-47) - Pre-World War I

Pre-World War I

Aylwin was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on 17 January 1914, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Leigh C. Palmer, the former naval aide of U.S. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. Following a short cruise to Cuba, Aylwin conducted operations off the North Carolina coast in April. On 6 April, she and sister ships Benham and Parker were exercising off the North Carolina coast, about 15 nautical miles (28 km) off the Diamond Shoals lightship. An explosion ripped through the forward fire room on Aylwin, injuring three men. Benham loaded the three wounded sailors and sped to the naval hospital at Norfolk, Virginia, while Parker took on the remainder of Aylwin's crew. One of the injured men died on Benham before landfall was made in Virginia; another died a short time later. The crews of all three destroyers raised $250 to help defray funeral expenses for the widow of one of the men.

Aylwin remained afloat but, unmanned, was towed into Norfolk by Parker and U.S. Navy tug Sonoma, arriving on 7 April. According to a report in The Washington Post, Aylwin made it to port with only five hours of buoyancy to spare. The report described the fore deck of the ship as "badly rent and torn up" and noted that two of the destroyer's four stacks were knocked out of alignment by the blast, with one askew at a 25° angle from its normal position. The newspaper speculated that faulty metal in the No. 1 boiler's mud drum was the cause of the explosion. Although repairs were estimated to take roughly three months, Aylwin was placed out of commission and remained inactive for more than a year at the Norfolk Navy Yard.

She was recommissioned on 25 May 1915 and assigned to the 6th Division, Torpedo Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet. The ship then cruised along the east coast carrying out routine patrols. Prior to the entrance of the United States into World War I, she served on Neutrality Patrols, trying to protect American and neutral-flagged merchant ships from interference by British or German warships and U-boats. In the course of performaing those duties, Aylwin was at Newport, Rhode Island in early October 1916. At 05:30 on 8 October, wireless reports came in of a German submarine stopping ships near the Lightship Nantucket, off the eastern end of Long Island. After an SOS from the British steamer West Point was received at about 12:30, Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves ordered Aylwin and other destroyers at Newport to attend to survivors. The American destroyers arrived on the scene about 17:00 when the U-boat, U-53 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose, was in the process of stopping the Holland-America Line cargo ship Blommersdijk. Shortly after, U-53 stopped the British passenger ship Stephano. As Rose had done with three other ships, U-53 had sunk earlier in the day, he gave passengers and crew aboard Blommersdijk and Stephano adequate time to abandon the ships before sinking the pair. At one point, Rose signaled Aylwin requesting that she move out of the way to allow Stephano to be torpedoed, much to the later chagrin of Lord Beresford, who denounced Aylwin's compliance as "aiding and abetting" the Germans in a speech in the House of Lords. In total, 226 survivors from U-53's five victims were rescued by the destroyer flotilla. Aylwin picked up the crew of Stephano and a number of passengers, later transferring them to destroyer Jenkins for return to Newport.

During the early months of 1917, Aylwin sailed to Cuban waters for winter maneuvers and returned to the Virginia capes area upon America's entry into World War I.