USS Trippe (DD-33) - Inter-war Period

Inter-war Period

Trippe's inactivity lasted five years. By 1924, Prohibition had spawned a thriving traffic in smuggling alcoholic beverages. The Coast Guard's small fleet, charged with stopping the illegal importation of alcohol, was unequal to the task. Consequently, President Calvin Coolidge proposed to increase that fleet by 20 of the Navy's inactive destroyers, and Congress authorized the necessary funds on 2 April 1924. Coast Guardsmen and Navy yard workers overhauled Trippe's hull, stripped her of depth charge gear and torpedo tubes, and removed one of her four guns. On 7 June 1924, Trippe was transferred to the Treasury Department; and, on 24 June, she was placed in commission as Trippe (CG-20), Lieutenant Commander John H. Cornell, USCG, in command. For the next four years, the former Navy destroyer operated along the northeastern coast out of New London, Connecticut, as a cutter of the Coast Guard's "rum patrol."

Trippe was placed in reduced commission at New London on 5 January 1929. That October, she was moved to Stapleton, New York. From January to March 1930, she was overhauled at the New York Navy Yard. After a month of gunnery exercises off St. Petersburg, Florida, she returned to Stapleton on 23 April to resume operations along the coast. On 18 December, Trippe cleared Stapleton for the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The Coast Guard decommissioned Trippe at Philadelphia on 15 April 1931 and returned her to the Navy on 2 May.

She remained in reserve at Philadelphia until 1934 when she was scrapped. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 5 July 1934. She was sold to Michael Flynn, Inc. of Brooklyn, New York on 22 August 1934.