USS Jacob Jones (DD-61)

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USS Jacob Jones (Destroyer No. 61/DD-61)<ref group=Note>The United States Navy's hull classification system—in which Jacob Jones would have been designated DD-61—was not implemented until July 1920. Even though Jacob Jones was never known as DD-61 while afloat, many reference works nevertheless extend the system and refer to the ship by what her designation would have been, had she survived the war.</ref> was a Template:Sclass built for the United States Navy prior to the American entry into World War I. The ship was the first U.S. Navy vessel named in honor of Jacob Jones.

Jacob Jones was laid down by the New York Shipbuilding of Camden, New Jersey, in August 1914 and launched in May of the following year. The ship was a little more than Template:Convert in length, just over Template:Convert abeam, and had a standard displacement of Template:Convert. She was armed with four [[4-inch/50-caliber gun|Template:Convert guns]] and had eight 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. Jacob Jones was powered by a pair of steam turbines that propelled her at up to Template:Convert.

After her February 1916 commissioning, Jacob Jones conducted patrols off the New England coast. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Jacob Jones was sent overseas. Patrolling the Irish Sea out of Queenstown, Ireland, Jacob Jones rescued the survivors of several ships, picking up over 300 from the sunken armed merchant cruiser Template:RMS.

On 6 December, Jacob Jones was steaming independently from Brest, France, for Queenstown, when she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine Template:SMU with the loss of 66 men, becoming the first United States destroyer sunk by enemy action.<ref name=NavSrc/> Jacob Jones sank in eight minutes without issuing a distress call; the German submarine commander, Template:Lang Hans Rose, after taking two badly injured Jacob Jones crewmen aboard his submarine, radioed the U.S. base at Queenstown with the coordinates for the survivors. The Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Dedham, Massachusetts is named for the ship.<ref name=dedham/>

Design and construction

Jacob Jones was authorized in 1913 as the fifth ship of the Template:Sclass which, like the related Template:Sclass, was an improved version of the Template:Sclasss authorized in 1911. Construction of the vessel was awarded to New York Shipbuilding of Camden, New Jersey, which laid down her keel on 3 August 1914. Ten months later, on 29 May 1915, Jacob Jones was launched by sponsor Mrs. Jerome Parker Crittenden (née Paulina Cazenove Jones), a great-granddaughter of the ship's namesake, Commodore Jacob Jones (1768–1850), a U.S. Navy officer during the War of 1812.<ref name=DANFS /> As built, Jacob Jones was Template:Convert in length and Template:Convert abeam and drew Template:Convert. The ship had a standard displacement of Template:Convert and displaced Template:Convert when fully loaded.<ref name=Con-123 />

Jacob Jones had two Curtis steam turbines that drove her two screw propellers, and an additional steam turbine geared to one of the propeller shafts for cruising purposes. The power plant could generate Template:Convert and move the ship at speeds up to Template:Convert.<ref name=DANFS /><ref name=Con-123 />

Jacob JonesTemplate:' main battery consisted of four [[4-inch/50-caliber gun|Template:Convert/50 Mark 9 guns]],<ref name=DANFS /><ref name=NavWeaps-4in>Template:Cite web</ref><ref group=Note>The 50 denotes the length of the gun barrels; in this case, the gun is 50 calibers, meaning that the barrel is 50 times as long as its bore diameter, Template:Convert in this case. The Mark number is the version of the gun; in this case, the ninth U.S. Navy design of the 4-inch/50 gun.</ref> with each gun weighing in excess of Template:Convert.<ref name=NavWeaps-4in /> The guns fired Template:Convert armor-piercing projectiles at Template:Convert. At an elevation of 20°, the guns had a range of Template:Convert.<ref name=NavWeaps-4in />

Jacob Jones was also equipped with eight Template:Convert torpedo tubes. The General Board of the United States Navy had called for two anti-aircraft guns for the Tucker-class ships, as well as provisions for laying up to 36 floating mines.<ref name=Con-123 /> From sources, it is unclear if these recommendations were followed for Jacob Jones or any of the other ships of the class.

United States Navy career

USS Jacob Jones was commissioned into the United States Navy on 10 February 1916 under the command of Lieutenant Commander William S. Pye. Following her commissioning, Jacob Jones conducted training exercises off the New England coast, and then entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. On 3 February 1917, the day the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, the ship nearly sank in the naval yard. Contemporary reports said it might have been an act of sabotage.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Upon the United States' entry into World War I on 6 April 1917, Jacob Jones patrolled off the coast of Virginia.<ref name=DANFS /> She sailed from Boston for Europe on 7 May with a group of destroyers that included Template:USS,<ref name=DANFS-Cassin>Template:Cite DANFS</ref> and arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, on 17 May.<ref name=DANFS />

Jacob JonesTemplate:' duties at Queenstown involved patrolling and escorting convoys in the Irish Sea and making occasional rescues of survivors of sunken ships. On 8 July, Template:SS was torpedoed by the German submarine Template:SMU some Template:Convert west of Fastnet Rock;<ref name=Ubn-Valetta>Template:Cite Uboat.net</ref> Jacob Jones arrived on the scene and picked up 44 survivors of the British steamship.<ref name=DANFS /> While escorting the British steamship Template:SS two weeks later, lookouts on Jacob Jones sighted a periscope, but before the destroyer could make an attack on the submarine, Template:SMU torpedoed and sank the steamship.<ref name=DANFS /><ref name=Ubn-Dafila>Template:Cite Uboat.net</ref> Jacob Jones was able to recover 26 of DafilaTemplate:'s 28-member crew after the ship went down.<ref name=Ubn-Dafila />

On 19 October, the British armed merchant cruiser Template:RMS and ten destroyers, including Jacob Jones, were escorting an eastbound convoy of twenty steamers, when the German submarine Template:SMU surfaced in the midst of the group. The submarine launched her only remaining torpedo at Orama, sinking that vessel.<ref name=GP-221>Gibson and Prendergast, p. 221.</ref> While sister ship Template:USS saw and depth charged U-62 (to no avail),<ref name=GP-221 /> Jacob Jones turned her attentions to rescuing OramaTemplate:'s survivors, gathering 309.<ref name=DANFS />

Sinking

In early December, Jacob Jones helped escort a convoy to Brest, France, with five other Queenstown-based destroyers. The last to depart from Brest on the return to Ireland, Jacob Jones was steaming alone in a zig-zag pattern when she was spotted by Template:Lang Hans Rose on the German submarine Template:SMU.<ref name=Feuer-21>Feuer, p. 21.</ref> At 16:20 on 6 December 1917, near position Template:Coord, lookouts on Jacob Jones spotted a torpedo Template:Convert distant headed for the ship's starboard side. Despite having her rudder put hard left and emergency speed rung up, Jacob Jones was unable to move out of the way, and the torpedo struck her rudder. Even though her depth charges did not explode, Jacob Jones was adrift. The jolt had knocked out power, so the destroyer was unable to send a distress signal; since she was steaming alone, no other ship was present to know of Jacob JonesTemplate:' predicament.<ref name=Feuer-21 />

Commander David W. Bagley, the destroyer's commander, ordered all life rafts and boats launched.<ref name=Feuer-21 /> As the ship sank, her bow raised in the air almost vertically before she began to slip beneath the waves. At this point the armed depth charges began to explode, killing men who had been unable to escape the destroyer, and stunning many others in the water.<ref name=Feuer-22>Feuer, p. 22.</ref> The destroyer, the first United States destroyer ever lost to enemy action,<ref name=NavSrc /> sank eight minutes after the torpedo struck the rudder, taking with her two officers and 64 ratings.<ref name=Feuer-22 />

Several of the crew—most notably Lieutenant, Junior Grade, Stanton F. Kalk, the officer-of-the-deck when the torpedo struck—began to get men out of the water and into the life rafts.<ref name=Feuer-22 /> Kalk worked in the cold Atlantic water to equalize the load among the various rafts, but died of exhaustion and exposure.<ref name=NHC-Kalk>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bagley noted in his official account that about 30 minutes after Jacob Jones sank, the German submarine surfaced about Template:Convert from the collection of rafts and took one of the American sailors on board.<ref name=Feuer-22 /> According to Uboat.net, what Rose of U-53 had done was surface and take aboard two badly injured American sailors.<ref name=Ubn-Jones>Template:Cite Uboat.net</ref> Rose had also radioed the American base at Queenstown with the approximate coordinates of the sinking before departing the area.<ref name=DANFS /><ref name=NHC-Jones>Template:Cite web</ref>

Bagley, unaware of Rose's humanitarian gesture,<ref name=DANFS /> left most of the food, water, and medical supplies with Lieutenant Commander John K. Richards, whom he left in charge of the assembled rafts. Bagley, Lieutenant Commander Norman Scott (Jacob JonesTemplate:' executive officer) and four crewmen (brought along to row), set out for aid in the nearby Isles of Scilly. At 13:00 on 7 December, Bagley's group was sighted by a British patrol vessel just Template:Convert from their destination. The group was relieved to find that the British sloop Template:HMS had found and taken aboard most of the survivors earlier that morning; a small group had been rescued on the night of the sinking by the American steamer Template:SS.<ref name=Feuer-22 />

Several men were recognized for their actions in the aftermath of the torpedo attack. Kalk (posthumously) and Bagley received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.<ref name=NHC-Kalk /><ref>Template:Cite DANFS</ref> Others honored included Chief Boatswain's Mate Harry Gibson (posthumously) and Chief Electrician's Mate L. J. Kelly, who both received the Navy Cross;<ref>Stringer, pp. 73, 90.</ref> and Richards, Scott, and Chief Boatswain's Mate Charles Charlesworth all received letters of commendation.<ref>Stringer, pp. 188, 210, 212.</ref> Rose was awarded the Pour le Mérite and Ritterkreuz des Hohenzollerschen Hausordens mit Schwertern for this and other achievements in the tonnage war.

Wreck

On 11 August 2022, British deep-sea divers located the wreck of Jacob Jones off the Isles of Scilly at a depth of Template:Convert.<ref name=Gross>Template:Cite news</ref> Numerous artifacts were located, including the Template:Convert ship's bell.<ref name=ruane20240220>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=ruane2040220>Template:Cite web</ref> The divers, who found the bell lying on its side, flipped it upright and photographed and filmed it.<ref name=ruane20240220/>

On 15 January 2024,<ref name=ruane20240220/> the British Ministry of Defence used an underwater robotic vehicle to salvage the ship's bell at the request of the U.S. Navy's Naval History and Heritage Command.<ref name=ruane20240220/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The inscriptions "Jacob Jones" and "1915" were still visible on the bell, and its clapper was still in place. The bell was placed in the custody of Wessex Archaeology in Salisbury, England, with plans calling for it to be sent to the Naval History and Heritage Command's underwater archaeology unit at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.<ref name=ruane20240220/> The bell was transferred to the U.S. Navy in a handover ceremony on 20 May 2024.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Template:USS – a United States Navy destroyer sunk prior to the American entry into World War II.
• Template:USS - namesake sunk by torpedo during the Second World War

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Gibson
• Template:Cite DANFS
• Template:Cite DANFS
• Template:Cite DANFS
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Template:Navsource
• USS Jacob Jones website at Destroyer History Foundation