USS Truxtun (DD-14) - World War I

World War I

On 18 February 1917, Truxtun was returned to full commission for the third and final time, Lieutenant James G. Ware in command. Initially, she was assigned to patrol duty in the area of the Panama Canal. On 6 April, the day the United States entered World War I, she departed Colon harbor and headed south to Puerto Colombia, Colombia, where she watched the German ship SS Prinz August Wilhelm which was anchored in the harbor. She was relieved by Stewart on 14 April and returned to Colon the following day. For almost three months, she patrolled the Pacific coastal waters of Panama and Colombia, periodically doubling as a submarine tender. On Independence Day 1917, she transited the Panama Canal and, the following day, departed Balboa, Panama, in company with Stewart, Preble, and Whipple. The four destroyers reached Hampton Roads on 13 July. Through the end of August, Truxtun patrolled Chesapeake Bay and conducted maneuvers off the coast. She made port calls at New York and Philadelphia, on one occasion acting in the escort for Texas.

On 31 August, Truxtun departed Philadelphia for duty in the Azores. After a short stop-over in Bermuda, she arrived at Ponta Delgada on 16 September. The destroyer operated from Ponta Delgada until early December. She and Whipple met SS Caproni on 30 September and escorted her into Ponta Delgada on 3 October. In mid-October, she made a short voyage to Funchal, Madeira, and back. Later that month, she participated in a search for the survivors of a torpedoed ship. Truxtun cleared Ponta Delgada on 6 December and headed — via Gibraltar — for France. She reached Brest on 15 December. Operating from that port, the destroyer convoyed merchant ships and conducted patrols against German U-boats for the remainder of World War I.

During the ensuing year, she experienced two adventures. The first came on the night of 17 April 1918 when the explosives-laden steamship SS Florence H. exploded into flame in Quiberon Bay. For steering his destroyer into the flaming seas surrounding the stricken munitions carrier and helping to rescue many of her crewmen, Truxtun's commanding officer, Lieutenant Ware, was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Her second scrape involved the enemy. At about 0900 on 18 May, while escorting a convoy, she sighted an underwater disturbance and immediately charged to the attack. The warship dropped several patterns of depth charges and fired several rounds from her guns. However, many of the depth charges failed to function properly. The U-boat, believed to have been UC-56, made good her escape; and Truxtun returned to the convoy at about 0930.

Just over a month after the armistice ended World War I, Truxtun bade farewell to Europe. Departing Brest on 18 December in company with Flusser, Stewart, Whipple, and Worden, she steamed, via Ponta Delgada and Bermuda, back to the United States. She entered the Delaware River on 3 January 1919 and was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 18 July. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 September. She was sold to Joseph G. Hitner of Philadelphia on 3 January 1920 for conversion to mercantile service as a motor fruit carrier.