Interdiction, one way or another
Commissioned 110 years ago this week: the Sampson-class tin can USS Davis (DD-65).
Built in 17 months at Bath Iron Works in Maine, she was commissioned on 5 October 1916 after being christened by the granddaughter of the late Civil War-era admiral.
At just some 315 feet in length and 1,225 tons displacement, she could make 29.5 knots and carried a full dozen 21-inch torpedo tubes in four triple mounts as well as four 4″/50 guns and a 1-pounder balloon gun.
Broadside view of Davis in Hampton Roads, 10 December 1916, clearly showing her main and secondary battery, with 4-inch guns on the foc’sle deck and on the main deck aft, with 1-pounder anti-aircraft guns mounted forward of the bridge and atop the deckhouse, aft. Her port side torpedo tube mounts are in the shadows. U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships Photograph 19-N-1931
10 December 1916. Looking aft from the bow of the USS Davis (DD-65) toward the bridge area and forward guns, a 4-inch gun (closest) and a 1-pounder anti-aircraft gun, 165-WW-335E-29.
She shipped out for Europe on 24 April 1917 and was one of the first six American destroyers to arrive in the British Isles 10 days later.
Serving on convoy and anti-submarine duties, she accidentally fired on one of His Majesty’s submarines (L2, without too much damage), then later plucked 35 of the Kaiser’s U-boat men from the water, survivors of SM U-103.
“German submarine U-103 shown in sinking condition immediately after having been rammed by HMS Olympic off the south coast of Ireland, 3:50 A.M. 12 May 1918. Davis, commanded by Commander W.V. Tomb, U.S.N., rescued 35 of the crew; 9 perished. This painting was made by Pointer, Q.M. 3c of the USS Davis.” Courtesy of Naval Academy Museum. NH 49849
Laid up in 1922, Davis was transferred to the Coast Guard during Prohibition and renamed USCGC Davis (CG-21), running interdiction between Florida and the Bahamas for seven years.
1931 Jane’s showing a few “Coast Guard destroyers”
The more than two dozen Coast Guard Destroyers during Prohibition. Via Rum at War, USCG
USS Davis (DD-65) as Coast Guard Destroyer No. 21 at the Charleston (Boston) drydock, 1920s. By Leslie Jones, Boston Herald.
She returned to the Navy in 1933 and was sold for scrap the next year.