USS O'Brien (DD-51) - Pre-World War I

Pre-World War I

O'Brien was commissioned into the United States Navy on 22 May 1915 under the command of Lieutenant Commander C. E. Courtney, after which she conducted her shakedown cruise between Newport, Rhode Island, and Hampton Roads, Virginia. In fleet exercises off New York in November, O'Brien collided with the destroyer Drayton, in a minor incident that carried away part of Drayton's topmast and wireless gear. In December, she was assigned to the 5th Division, Torpedo Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet. From early 1916-spring of 1917, she operated with the Fleet along the East Coast and in Cuban waters.

At 0530 on 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 1230, Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves ordered O'Brien and other destroyers at Newport to attend to survivors. The American destroyers arrived on the scene at about 1700 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. In total, 226 survivors from U-53's five victims were rescued by the destroyer flotilla.

In February 1917, one of O'Brien's gun crews hit a target at 5,000 yd (4,600 m) eight times in eight attempts with one of the destroyer's 4 in (100 mm) guns, a feat which earned the crew and O'Brien recognition in The Independent, a weekly newsmagazine published in Boston.