USS Nicholson ( DD - 52 ) USS " Nicholson " ( Destroyer No . 52 / DD - 52 ) was an built for the United States Navy before the American entry into World War I . The ship was the second U . S . Navy vessel named in honor of five members of the Nicholson family who gave distinguished service in the American Revolutionary War , the War of 1812 , and the American Civil War : brothers James , Samuel , and John Nicholson ; William Nicholson , son of John ; and James W . Nicholson , grandson of Samuel . " Nicholson " was laid down by William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia in September 1913 and launched in August 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 . " Nicholson " was powered by a pair of steam turbines that propelled her at up to . After her April 1915 commissioning , " Nicholson " sailed off the east coast and in the Caribbean . After the United States entered World War I in April 1917 , " Nicholson " was sent overseas to patrol the Irish Sea out of Queenstown , Ireland . In October 1917 , " Nicholson " steamed to the rescue of , driving off German submarine , which had shelled the American cargo ship for over three hours . In November , " Nicholson " and another US destroyer , , were responsible for sinking German submarine , the first submarine taken by US forces during the war . In September 1918 , " Nicholson " helped drive off after that U - boat had torpedoed the American troopship off the coast of France . Upon returning to the United States after the war , " Nicholson " was placed in reduced commission in November 1919 . She was decommission ed at Philadelphia in May 1922 . She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in January 1936 and sold for scrapping in June . Design and construction . " Nicholson " was authorized in March 1913 as the second of six ships of the , which was an improved version of the s authorized in 1911 . Construction of the vessel was awarded to William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia which laid down her keel on 8 September 1913 , the same date as of sister ship . On 19 August 1914 , " Nicholson " was launched by sponsor Mrs . Charles T . Taylor . The ship was the second US Navy ship named after five members of the Nicholson family who gave distinguished service in the American Revolutionary War , the War of 1812 , and the American Civil War . They were brothers James Nicholson , the senior Continental Navy Captain ; Samuel Nicholson , the first captain of ; and John Nicholson ; Also honored were William Nicholson , son of John ; and James W . Nicholson , grandson of Samuel . As built , the destroyer was in length , abeam , and drew . The ship had a standard displacement of and displaced when fully loaded . " Nicholson " had two Zoelly 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 White - Forster boiler s powered the engines , which could generate , moving the ship at up to . " Nicholson " 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 . " Nicholson " 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 " Nicholson " or any of the other ships of the class . World War I . " Nicholson " was commissioned into the United States Navy on 30 April 1915 under the command of Lieutenant Commander A . E . Watson in command . After a shakedown cruise in the North Atlantic , " Nicholson " operated in the Caribbean and along the east coast until early 1917 . After the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917 entering World War I , " Nicholson " was put to sea from New York on 15 May with , , , and . The destroyers arrived at Queenstown , Ireland , 24 May for duty in the war zone . In mid - October , " Nicholson " was part of the destroyer escort , for the eastbound convoy HS 14 . At 0850 , an SOS was received from , traveling independently some ahead of the convoy . Commander Alfred W . Johnson on , the commander of the escorting destroyer unit , dispatched " Nicholson " to steam ahead to assist " J . L . Luckenbach " , which was being shelled by a German submarine . " Luckenbach " was equipped with guns of her own , but they were outranged by the pair of deck gun s on her attacker , . By the time " Nicholson " arrived on the scene at about 1230 , " U - 62 " had been shelling " J . L . Luckenbach " for over three hours . Despite many rounds fired , only about a dozen had hit the American steamer ; some of the hits , however , had ignited " Luckenbach " s cargo of cotton . " Nicholson " trained her guns on the U - boat and , by the time her gunners had fired a second round , " U - 62 " submerged and disappeared . The destroyer transferred a damage control party aboard the " Luckenbach " which helped extinguish the fire and repair some of the damages to the ship . A few hours later , " J . L . Luckenbach " and " Nicholson " joined and rejoined the convoy , respectively . Sinking of " U - 58 " . The following month , " Nicholson " had a more successful encounter with a U - boat . Operating as the destroyer division ' s flagship , " Nicholson " - under the command of Lieutenant Commander Frank D . Berrien - and her group had joined the eastbound convoy OQ 20 on the afternoon of 17 November . At about 1615 , was steaming to her position at the rear of the eight - ship convoy when her lookouts spotted a periscope just ahead . The periscope belonged to under the command of " Kapitänleutnant " Gustav Amberger , who was lining up a torpedo shot on the British steamer SS " Welshman " . While " Fanning " circled around and dropped a depth charge on the spot where the periscope had been seen , " Nicholson " , which had raced through the convoy , dropped another in nearly the same location ; both were to good effect . The two depth charges knocked out the electric motor that powered " U - 58 " s diving planes , making the vessel unmanageable . " U - 58 " broached the surface momentarily and " Fanning " dropped another trio of depth charges over the submarine . These three knocked out all electrical power and the manual diving plane controls , which caused the submarine to descend through a depth of . Amberger ordered the ballast tank s blown and the submarine slowly rose to the surface , stabilizing on the surface with her bow pointing down . The submarines four officers and 35 men evacuated " U - 58 " and surrendered to " Fanning " at 16 : 28 , but not before opening the sea valves to allow the U - boat to sink . One of " U - 58 " s crewmen drowned before reaching " Fanning " , while another died of a heart attack after he was brought aboard the destroyer . An official account of the sinking was released to the press on 29 December , and " Fanning " and " Nicholson " shared credit for what " The Washington Post " in a contemporary news account called the " first U - Boat prize of the U . S . " during the war ; later works still credit the pair of destroyers with the US Navy ' s first U - Boat kill . In February 1918 , " Nicholson " transferred to Brest where she escorted convoys along the French coast . In early September 1918 , " Nicholson " was one of six destroyers escorting a westbound pair of US Navy transports , and . On the morning of 5 September , about west of Brest , German submarine torpedoed " Mount Vernon " , knocking out half of the troopship ' s boilers . " Nicholson " , , , and , all depth charged the U - boat without success , but , combined with defensive efforts from " Mount Vernon " herself , helped prevent the submarine from launching a " coup de grâce " against the former German liner . " Mount Vernon " safely made it back to Brest with the loss of 37 crewmen out of the 1 , 450 passengers and crew on board . Postwar period . Following the signing of the Armistice on 11 November , which ended all fighting , " Nicholson " remained in French waters . After arriving at New York on 10 January 1919 , " Nicholson " resumed operations along the east coast until placed in reserve at Philadelphia on 27 November . In July 1920 , she was assigned the hull code of " DD - 52 " under the US Navy ' s alphanumeric classification system . In May 1921 , " Nicholson " was reactivated with a reduced complement . She remained active for about a year , until she was decommission ed at Philadelphia on 26 May 1922 . The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 7 January 1936 , and on 30 June was sold for scrapping .