USS Thatcher ( DD - 162 ) The first USS " Thatcher " ( DD – 162 ) was a " Wickes " - class destroyer in the United States Navy , later transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS " Niagara " . As USS " Thatcher " . Named for Admiral Henry K . Thatcher , she was laid down on 8 June 1918 at Quincy , Massachusetts , by the Fore River Plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation ; launched on 31 August 1918 ; sponsored by Miss Doris Bentley , the grandniece of Rear Admiral Thatcher ; and commissioned on 14 January 1919 , Lieutenant Commander Henry M . Kieffer in temporary command . On 25 January , Lt . Comdr . Francis W . Rockwell — who later commanded the 16th Naval District in the Philippines at the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific — assumed command . Following shakedown , " Thatcher " operated with the Atlantic Fleet into the autumn of 1919 . During the transatlantic NC - boat flights in May 1919 , the destroyer operated on picket station number 9 — one of 21 stations strung out from Newfoundland to the Azores — between her sister ships " Walker " ( Destroyer No . 163 ) and " Crosby " ( Destroyer No . 164 ) . Underway at sea , she provided visual and radio bearings for the flying boats as they passed overhead on their way toward Lisbon , Portugal . Upon completion of this duty , the destroyer — reclassified as DD - 162 on 17 July 1920 — resumed her routine training operations off the eastern seaboard before heading west in the autumn of 1921 to join the Pacific Fleet . She operated out of San Diego , conducting exercises and training cruises off the west coast until decommissioned at San Diego on 7 June 1922 . " Thatcher " remained laid - up at San Diego through the summer of 1939 . War broke out in Europe on 1 September 1939 , when German troops invaded Poland . " Thatcher " was recommissioned at San Diego on 18 December 1939 , Lt . Comdr . Henry E . Richter in command , and conducted shakedown and training evolutions off the west coast until transferred to the Atlantic the following spring . Transiting the Panama Canal on 1 April 1940 , a month before the situation in Europe became critical when Germany began her blitzkrieg against France and the Low Countries , " Thatcher " subsequently conducted neutrality patrols and training cruises off the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico through the summer of 1940 . The European situation took a drastic turn with the fall of France in June 1940 . British destroyer forces in the wake of the disastrous Norwegian campaign and the evacuation of Dunkirk found themselves thinly spread — especially after Italy entered the war on Germany ' s side . Prime Minister Winston Churchill appealed to the United States for help . In response , Franklin D . Roosevelt issued an executive order authorizing the transfer of 50 " over age " destroyers to the British in return for 99 - year leases on strategic base sites in the western hemisphere . " Thatcher " was accordingly withdrawn from the Atlantic Squadron and her operations with Destroyer Division 69 for transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy , which had been allocated six of the " 50 ships that saved the world , " as these vessels came to be known . As such , " Thatcher " and her five sisters arrived at Halifax , Nova Scotia , on 20 September — the third group of the " flush deckers " transferred . Decommissioned on 24 September 1940 , " Thatcher " was struck from the Navy list on 8 January 1941 . As HMCS " Niagara " . Renamed HMCS " Niagara " following the Canadian practice of naming destroyers after Canadian rivers ( but with deference to the U . S . origin ) , after the Niagara River forming the border between New York and Ontario . " Niagara " departed Halifax on 30 November ; proceeded eastward via St . John ' s , Newfoundland ; and arrived in the British Isles on 11 December . Early in 1941 , the destroyer was allocated to the 4th Escort Group , Western Approaches Command , and based at Greenock , Scotland . Subsequently transferred to the Newfoundland escort force , " Niagara " operated on convoy escort duties into the summer of 1941 . While she was operating with this force , she took part in the capture of a German U - boat , " U - 570 " . A Lockheed Hudson bomber , flying from Kaldaðarnes , 30 miles southeast of Reykjavík , Iceland , located " U - 570 " running on the surface off the Icelandic coast on 27 August 1941 . The " Hudson " attacked the U - boat with depth charge s , damaging the enemy craft so severely that she could not submerge . Soon , some of the German crew appeared on deck displaying a large white cloth — possibly a bed sheet — indicating that they had surrendered . Patently unable to capture the submarine herself , the Hudson radioed for help . " Niagara " sped to the scene and arrived at 08 : 20 on 28 August 1941 . Rough weather initially hampered the operation but eventually , by 18 : 00 , " Niagara " had placed a prize crew aboard the submarine and had taken " U - 570 " in tow . During the operation , she also took the 43 - man crew of the enemy craft on board . Towed to Þorlákshöfn , Iceland , the U - boat eventually served in the Royal Navy as HMS " Graph " . In January 1942 , " Niagara " escorted the tempest - battered Danish merchantman " Triton " into Belfast , Northern Ireland , after the freighter had been severely mauled in a storm at sea . In March the destroyer rescued the survivors from the American merchantman SS " Independence Hall " , which had run aground off Sable Island , Nova Scotia , and had broken in half . The next month , she picked up two boatloads of survivors from the sunken steamer SS " Rio Blanco " , which had been torpedoed by " U - 160 " on 1 April 1942 , 40 miles east of Cape Hatteras , North Carolina . The destroyer subsequently underwent boiler repairs at Pictou from May to August 1942 before resuming coastwise convoy operations between Halifax and New York and escort duty in the western Atlantic . Another refit at Pictou came in June and October 1943 , before she continued her coastwise convoy escort missions through 1944 . " Niagara " became a torpedo - firing ship — first at Halifax and later at St . John , New Brunswick — from the spring of 1945 until the end of World War II in mid - August 1945 , training torpedomen . Decommissioned on 15 September 1945 , " Niagara " was turned over to the War Assets Corporation on 27 May 1946 and ultimately broken up for scrap soon thereafter .