USS Trippe (DD-33) - Pre-World War I

Pre-World War I

Upon commissioning, Trippe joined the torpedo boat destroyers and submarines assigned to the east coast as a unit of the Atlantic Torpedo Fleet. For the next three years, she conducted routine operations along the east coast. In 1911, she completed trials and participated in exercises off Newport, Boston, and the Virginia Capes. She made her first cruise to southern waters in 1912. She cleared Newport on 3 January and dropped anchor in Guantanamo Bay 11 days later. Following three months of training at Guantanamo Bay and in the Gulf of Mexico, the torpedo boat destroyer returned north in April and entered Boston harbor on the 21st. After repairs, Trippe resumed training operations off the northeastern coast. On 2 January 1913, the warship headed south once more for three months of tactical exercises and gunnery drills out of Guantanamo Bay and in the Gulf of Guacanayabo. She returned to Boston on 14 April and spent the remainder of 1913 in operations off the coast between Boston and Norfolk, Virginia.

Trippe began 1914 as she had the previous two years — by heading south and conducting battle practice in the Caribbean through the end of March. However, in April, the Tampico incident brought her to the shores of Mexico, when American sailors and Marines went ashore at Veracruz and seized the customs house on the 21st. Trippe arrived off Tampico on the 22d and patrolled the area for a week to prevent arms from being landed. On 1 May, she steamed south to Vera Cruz where she conducted more patrols and supported the battleships and cruisers operating in the vicinity. Near the end of the month, Trippe cleared Mexican waters; and, on the 31st, entered Boston harbor.

At the completion of an extensive overhaul, the warship conducted trials and drills in the Boston area from mid-August to late September. On 30 September, Trippe arrived at Newport for a week of operation before heading south. She shifted to Hampton Roads in mid-October and participated in exercises there and at Lynnhaven Bay for a month before returning to Boston.

The warship spent December and the first three weeks of 1915 in the Boston area and, on 26 January, arrived in Guantanamo Bay to resume her schedule of winter drills in the Caribbean. Late in March, Trippe pointed her bow northward once more and reached Boston on 6 April. After her normal round of maneuvers off the northeastern coast, the torpedo boat destroyer returned to Boston on 23 October. A little less than two months later — on 13 December 1915 — Trippe became a unit of the newly-organized 2nd Reserve Flotilla. On 5 January 1916, she was designated a "Destroyer operating with reduced complement;" and, on the 27th, she was placed in ordinary at the Boston Navy Yard.