USS McDougal ( DD - 54 ) USS " McDougal " ( Destroyer No . 54 / DD - 54 ) was an built for the United States Navy prior to the American entry into World War I . The ship was the second U . S . Navy vessel named in honor of David Stockton McDougal , a U . S . Navy officer notable for his leadership during an 1863 battle off Japan while in command of . " McDougal " was laid down by Bath Iron Works of Bath , Maine , in July 1913 and launched in April 1914 . The ship was a little more than in length , just over abeam , and had a standard displacement of . She was armed with four guns and had eight torpedo tube s . " McDougal " was powered by a pair of steam turbines that propelled her at up to . After her June 1914 commissioning , " McDougal " sailed off the east coast and in the Caribbean . She was one of seventeen destroyers sent out to rescue survivors from five victims of German submarine off the Lightship Nantucket in October 1916 , and carried 6 crewmen from a sunken Dutch cargo ship to Newport , Rhode Island . After the United States entered World War I in April 1917 , " McDougal " was part of the first U . S . destroyer squadron sent overseas . Patrolling the Irish Sea out of Queenstown , Ireland , " McDougal " made several unsuccessful attacks on U - boats , and rescued survivors of ships sunk by the German craft . After a collision with a British cargo ship in February 1918 , " McDougal " was under repair until mid - July , and afterwards , operated out of Brest , France . Upon returning to the United States after the war , " McDougal " conducted operations with the destroyers of the Atlantic Fleet until August 1919 , when she was placed in reserve , still in commission . After a brief stint of operations in mid 1921 , she was placed in reserve until she was decommission ed at Philadelphia in May 1922 . In June 1924 , " Ericsson " was transferred to the United States Coast Guard to help enforce Prohibition as a part of the " Rum Patrol " . She operated under the name USCGC " McDougal " ( CG - 6 ) until May 1933 , when she was returned to the Navy . In November she dropped her name to free it for a new destroyer of the same name , becoming known only as DD - 54 . She was struck for the Naval Vessel Register in July 1934 and sold for scrapping in August . Design and construction . " McDougal " was authorized in March 1913 as the fourth of six ships of the , which was an improved version of the s authorized in 1911 . Construction of the vessel was awarded to Bath Iron Works of Bath , Maine , which laid down her keel on 29 July 1913 . On 22 April 1914 , " McDougal " was launched by sponsor Miss Marguerite S . LeBreton , granddaughter of the Commander David Stockton McDougal , the ship ' s namesake . The ship was the first U . S . Navy ship named for McDougal , notable for his leadership during an 1863 battle off Japan while in command of . As built , the destroyer was in length , abeam , and drew . The ship had a standard displacement of and displaced when fully loaded . " McDougal " had two Zoelly steam turbines that drove her two screw propellers , and an additional triple - expansion steam engine connected to one of the propeller shafts for cruising purposes . Four oil - burning White - Forster boiler s powered the engines , which could generate , moving the ship at the design speed of . During her acceptance trials in May 1914 , " McDougal " averaged in a 15 - minute run , but topped out at for a , top - speed run . " McDougal " s main battery consisted of four / 50 Mark 9 guns , with each gun weighing in excess of . The guns fired armor - piercing projectile s at . At an elevation of 20° , the guns had a range of . " McDougal " was also equipped with eight torpedo tube s . The General Board of the United States Navy had called for two anti - aircraft gun s for the " O ' Brien " - class ships , as well as provisions for laying up to 36 floating mine s . From sources , it is unclear if these recommendations were followed for " McDougal " or any of the other ships of the class . Early career . USS " McDougal " was commissioned into the United States Navy on 16 June 1914 at Boston under the temporary command of Lieutenant , junior grade , John H . Hoover ; Lieutenant Commander Leigh C . Palmer assumed command on 27 July . After a shakedown cruise , " McDougal " began duty with the Torpedo Flotilla , Atlantic Fleet . Prior to America ’ s entry into World War I , she operated out of New York and Newport , Rhode Island , and carried out maneuvers and tactical exercises along the east coast . In early April 1915 , " McDougal " and destroyer were temporarily assigned to patrol near the New York Quarantine Station . There were concerns by Dudley Field Malone , the local port collector , that some of the interned German steamships at New York might try to slip out during a heavy snowstorm . While onboard on " McDougal " during one of these patrols , Malone discovered what " The New York Times " termed a " widespread conspiracy " intended to supply British warships outside of U . S . territorial waters , in violation of the American neutrality in World War I . She cruised to the Caribbean and took part in fleet war games between January and May 1916 , and in addition served intermittently with the Neutrality patrol . In May , she was declared the " champion smokeless vessel " of the U . S . Navy by " The Christian Science Monitor " after she was able to steam at for four hours without betraying her position by smoke . In June , " The Washington Post " reported that she was damaged during maneuvers off Cape Ann , and had to put in to the Boston Navy Yard for leak repairs . At 05 : 30 on Sunday , 8 October 1916 , wireless reports came in of a German submarine stopping ships near the Lightship Nantucket , off the eastern end of Long Island . After an SOS from the British steamer was received at about 12 : 30 , Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves ordered " McDougal " and other destroyers at Newport to attend to survivors . According to a firsthand account of the events by Nathan Levy , a quartermaster on " McDougal " , published on 22 October in " The New York Times " , the destroyer steamed the distance to the lightship in three - and - a - half hours , arriving after German submarine had stopped the Holland America Line cargo ship and the British passenger ship . As Rose had done with three other ships " U - 53 " had sunk earlier in the day , he gave passengers and crew aboard " Blommersdijk " and " Stephano " adequate time to abandon the ships . After sinking " Blommersdijk " with two torpedoes , Rose focused his attention on " Stephano " , having to signal " McDougal " and to ask that the two destroyers move farther away so that he could sink the British ship . Six American destroyers witnessed " U - 53 " sink the liner with her deck gun . In total , 226 survivors from " U - 53 " s five victims were rescued by the destroyer flotilla ; " McDougal " rescued 6 of " Blommersdijk " s men . " McDougal " returned to the Caribbean for exercises during the first three months of 1917 , and then returned to New York and Newport to prepare for distant service . World War I . Soon after the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917 , " McDougal " departed for Europe as a part of the first U . S . destroyer division sent overseas during the war . Steaming with , the division ' s flagship , under the command of Joseph K . Taussig , " McDougal " , , , , and departed New York on 24 April and arrived at Queenstown , Ireland , on 4 May and began patrolling the southern approaches to the Irish Sea the next day . " McDougal " patrolled off the Irish coast , escorting convoys of merchant ships and troop transports , searching for German submarines , and performing rescue operations for ships sunk . When British ship was torpedoed and sunk by on 5 June 1917 , " McDougal " sped to her assistance and rescued 33 survivors . On 8 September , as " McDougal " escorted a convoy off the southwest coast of England , she detected a surfaced submarine in the early morning hours and gave chase at full speed . The U - boat submerged about ahead of the closing destroyer , and " McDougal " dropped two depth charges which brought an oil slick to the surface . According to the " Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships " , " McDougal " s actions prevented an attack on the convoy and resulted in " probable damage " to the submarine . On 4 February 1918 , " McDougal " and the British cargo ship " Glenmorag " collided in the Irish Sea . The destroyer made her way to Liverpool and underwent repairs that lasted until mid - July . Upon reentering service , " McDougal " was transferred to Brest to serve as an escort for convoys approaching the French port . Postwar . Following the signing of the Armistice on 11 November 1918 , which ended all fighting , " McDougal " remained in French waters for a time . Crewmen aboard " McDougal " helped raise money to provide a Thanksgiving dinner for 150 " poor children " of Brest on 28 November , Thanksgiving Day in the United States . When President Woodrow Wilson arrived at Brest on just over two weeks later , the destroyer served as part of that transport ' s escort into the harbor . On 21 December , " McDougal " departed Brest 21 December with Destroyer Division 7 and reached New York 8 January 1919 . " McDougal " resumed duty along the east coast and , during May , provided part of the comprehensive at - sea support as U . S . Navy seaplane s undertook the historic first aerial crossing of the Atlantic . After completing exercises in the Caribbean , she was placed in commission , in reserve at New York on 7 August . She was laid up in reduced commission at Philadelphia and Charleston , South Carolina , in the years that followed . She was reactivated for training in New England waters during the summer of 1921 , but returned to Philadelphia , where she was decommission ed on 26 May 1922 . United States Coast Guard career . On 17 January 1920 , Prohibition was instituted by law in the United States . Soon , the smuggling of alcoholic beverages along the coastlines of the United States became widespread and blatant . The Treasury Department eventually determined that the United States Coast Guard simply did not have the ships to constitute a successful patrol . To cope with the problem , President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 authorized the transfer from the Navy to the Coast Guard of twenty old destroyers that were in reserve and out of commission . " McDougal " was activated and acquired by the Coast Guard on 7 June 1924 . Designated " CG - 6 " , " McDougal " was commissioned on 28 May 1925 , and joined the " Rum Patrol " to aid in the attempt to enforce prohibition laws . In August 1929 , " McDougal " and were dispatched to locate and sink the steamer " Quimistan " , which had been reported as abandoned and on fire in the Atlantic east of Norfolk , Virginia . In April 1933 , " McDougal " was one of the Coast Guard ships deployed to search for the U . S . Navy airship when it crashed into the Atlantic on the night of 3 / 4 April . Later that same month , " McDougal " was dispatched to help the Italian steamer " Voluntas " when she had requested assistance on the 23rd , but was recalled when " Voluntas " rescinded the call for help . After nearly eight years of Coast Guard service , " McDougal " was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 26 May 1933 and returned to the custody of the U . S . Navy on 30 June . On 1 November 1933 , she dropped the name " McDougal " to free it for a new destroyer of the same name , becoming known only as " DD - 54 " . The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 5 July 1934 , and , on 22 August , was sold for scrapping in accordance with the London Naval Treaty for the limitation of naval armaments .