USS Ericsson (DD-56) - Early Career

Early Career

USS Ericsson was commissioned into the United States Navy on 14 August 1915 under the command of Lieutenant Commander W. L. Pryor. From October through December 1915, Ericsson operated out of New York and Newport, Rhode Island, on drills, in training, and on the Neutrality Patrol. With the Torpedo Flotilla of the Atlantic Fleet she sailed on 7 January 1916 for maneuvers in the Caribbean, using Key West and Guantanamo Bay as bases. She returned to Newport on 23 May.

At 05:30 on Sunday, 8 October 1916, 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 Ericsson and other destroyers at Newport to attend to survivors; Ericsson was the fourth of seventeen destroyers to get underway. The destroyers arrived on the scene at about 17:00 when the U-boat, U-53 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose, fired shots across the bow of the Holland-America Line cargo ship Blommersdijk, signaling her to stop. 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. Ericsson was one of six destroyers taking on passengers from Stephano that witnessed her sinking. In total, 226 survivors from U-53's five victims were rescued by the destroyer flotilla. Ericsson transported 81—including 35 women and children—back to Newport, where she arrived at 01:30 on 9 October.

After finishing out the rest of 1916 at Newport, Ericsson again joined in exercises in the Caribbean for the first three months of 1917, and then returned to New York City and Newport to prepare for distant service.