USS Benham ( DD - 49 ) USS " Benham " ( Destroyer No . 49 / DD - 49 ) was an 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 Rear Admiral Andrew E . K . Benham . " Benham " was laid down by William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia in March 1912 and launched in March 1913 . 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 . " Benham " was powered by a pair of steam turbines that propelled her at up to . After her January 1914 commissioning , she assisted her sister ship when that ship suffered an explosion in one of her fire rooms in April . After a period in reserve , " Benham " served on Neutrality Patrol duty . As a part of that duty in October 1916 , she was one of several U . S . destroyers sent to rescue survivors from five victims of German submarine off the Lightship Nantucket . She picked up officers and crew from a Dutch cargo ship before the U - boat sank it . After the United States entered World War I in April 1917 , " Benham " was sent overseas to patrol the Irish Sea out of : Queenstown , Ireland . " Benham " made several unsuccessful attacks on U - boats . During her overseas service , " Benham " was rammed by and nearly sunk . Upon returning to the United States after the war in January 1919 , " Benham " was placed in reduced commission . After alternating periods of activity and time in reserve , " Benham " was decommission ed at Philadelphia in July 1922 . She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in March 1935 and ordered scrapped in April . Design and construction . " Benham " was authorized in March 1911 as the third of four ships of the , which was almost identical to the s authorized at the same time . Construction of the vessel — like her three sister ships — was awarded to William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia which laid down her keel on 14 March 1912 . On 22 March 1913 , " Benham " was launched by sponsor Edith Wallace Benham , daughter of the ship ' s namesake , Andrew Ellicot Kennedy Benham . The ship was the first U . S . Navy vessel named in honor of the American admiral . As built , the destroyer was in length , abeam , and drew . The ship had a standard displacement of and displaced when fully loaded . " Benham " had two steam turbines that drove her two screw propellers , and an additional pair triple - expansion steam engines , each connected to one of the propeller shafts , for cruising purposes . Four oil - burning boilers powered the engines , which could generate , moving the ship at the design speed of ; " Benham " exceeded her contracted speed in her trials in December 1913 , when she averaged over five runs off the Delaware Breakwater . " Benham " s main battery consisted of four / 50 cal 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 . In early 1917 , " Benham " s single guns were replaced with twin guns on an experimental basis . However , before " Benham " departed for overseas service during World War I , her original single gun mounts had been restored . " Benham " was also equipped with eight torpedo tube s . Pre - World War I . USS " Benham " was commissioned into the U . S . Navy on 20 January 1914 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Charles R . Train . In February and March , " Benham " conducted a shakedown cruise to the West Indies and , in April , began operations out of Hampton Roads , Virginia . On 6 April , " Benham " and sister ships and were exercising off the North Carolina coast , about off the Diamond Shoals lightship . An explosion ripped through the forward fire room on " Aylwin " , injuring three men . " Benham " loaded the three wounded sailors and sped to the naval hospital at Norfolk , Virginia , while " Parker " took on the remainder of " Aylwin " s crew . One of the injured men died on " Benham " before landfall was made in Virginia ; another died a short time later . " Aylwin " remained afloat but , unmanned , was towed into Norfolk by " Parker " and U . S . Navy tug . The crews of all three destroyers raised $ 250 to help defray funeral expenses for the widow of one of the men . In July , the " Benham " went into reserve at the New York Navy Yard . She came back into active service on 21 December 1914 . In August 1916 , the U . S . Navy conducted what " The New York Times " called the " greatest war game undertaken by the American Navy . " In the scenario , a ' Blue ' force defended the East Coast of the United States against a ' Red ' force attempting an amphibious landing . " Benham " , scouting for the Blue force , was the first to spot the inbound Red transports and their escorts , but an attack on the transports by the Red force was repulsed , leading to a Blue victory . Prior to the entrance of the United States into World War I , she served on Neutrality Patrol duty , trying to protect American and neutral - flagged merchant ships from interference by British or German warships and U - boats . In the course of performaing those duties , " Benham " was at Newport , Rhode Island , in early October 1916 . At 05 : 30 on 8 October , 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 " Benham " and other destroyers at Newport to attend to survivors . The American destroyers arrived on the scene about 17 : 00 when the U - boat , under the command of " Kapitänleutnant " Hans Rose , was in the process of stopping the Holland - America Line cargo ship . Shortly after , " U - 53 " stopped 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 before sinking the pair . In total , 226 survivors from " U - 53 " s five victims were rescued by the destroyer flotilla . " Benham " picked up the captain of and crewmen from " Blommersdijk " for transport to Newport . World War I . After the United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917 , " Benham " was one of the first group of destroyers chosen for anti - submarine duty in European waters . She departed Tompkinsville , New York on 17 May and arrived in Queenstown , Ireland on 24 May . Four days later , the destroyer began the first of many tours of duty at sea hunting U - boats and shepherding convoys to their destinations . Her first encounter with U - boats came on 13 July when she was apparently attacked by two submarines . They launched a total of three torpedoes at " Benham " , but she and her convoy evaded them . The destroyer then drove them away with a depth charge attack . On 30 July , while she was on her way to Queenstown , the destroyer spied the wake of another torpedo some from her . Immediately , she charged to the attack with guns and depth charges . Later , her crew sighted air bubbles and oil on the surface . The British Admiralty commended her for probable damage to a German U - boat . The destroyer continued her patrols out of Queenstown until June 1918 when she moved to Brest , France , her base of operations through the end of the war . At some point in her European wartime service , " Benham " was rammed by the British . The event is not mentioned in the " Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships " ; the extent of the damage to both ships is unknown . Postwar . On 21 December 1918 , " Benham " put to sea from Brest for the last time and began the voyage back to the United States . Rejoining the Atlantic Fleet at the beginning of 1919 , the warship participated in the annual fleet maneuvers held in Cuban waters and then made a cruise to the Azores in May . Upon her return to the United States that summer , she was placed in ordinary at Norfolk on 28 June . Active again in 1921 , she patrolled the eastern seaboard until assigned duty as plane guard and tender to the Atlantic Fleet Air Squadrons . That duty terminated in May 1922 , and she stood into Philadelphia on 12 May to prepare for inactivation . " Benham " was decommission ed at Philadelphia on 7 July 1922 . The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 8 March 1935 , and , on 23 April , was ordered scrapped at the Philadelphia Navy Yard .