USS Tucker ( DD - 57 ) USS " Tucker " ( Destroyer No . 57 / DD - 57 ) was the lead ship of her class of destroyer s 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 for Samuel Tucker . " Tucker " was laid down by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy , Massachusetts , in November 1914 and launched in May 1915 . The ship was a little more than in length , nearly abeam , and had a standard displacement of . She was armed with four guns and had eight torpedo tube s . " Tucker " was powered by a pair of steam turbines that propelled her at up to . After her April 1916 commissioning , " Tucker " sailed in the Atlantic and the Caribbean . After the United States entered World War I in April 1917 , " Tucker " was part of the second U . S . destroyer squadron sent overseas . Patrolling the Irish Sea out of Queenstown , Ireland , " Tucker " made several rescues of passengers and crew from ships sunk by U - boats . For her part in rescuing crewmen from the in August 1918 , " Tucker " received a commendation from the " Préfet Maritime " . In June , " Tucker " was transferred to Brest , France , and spent the remainder of the war there . Upon returning to the United State near the end of 1918 , " Tucker " underwent repairs at the Boston Navy Yard . After a New England recruiting tour through October 1919 , she was placed in reduced commission and then decommission ed in May 1921 . In March 1926 , " Tucker " 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 " Tucker " ( CG - 23 ) until 1933 ; during her Coast Guard service , she was the first American ship to arrive at the crash site of Navy airship . After her transfer back to the Navy later in 1933 , the ship was renamed DD - 57 to free the name " Tucker " for another destroyer . She was sold for scrap and hulked in December 1936 . Design and construction . " Tucker " was authorized in 1913 as the lead ship of her class which , like the related , was an improved version of the s authorized in 1911 . Construction of the vessel was awarded to Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy , Massachusetts , which laid down her keel on 9 November 1914 . Six months later , on 4 May 1915 , " Tucker " was launched by sponsor Mrs . William Garty , the great - great - granddaughter of the ship ' s namesake , Samuel Tucker ( 1747 – 1833 ) , a Continental Navy officer . As built , " Tucker " was in length and abeam and drew . The ship had a standard displacement of and displaced when fully loaded . " Tucker " had two Curtis steam turbine s 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 and move the ship at speeds of up to , though " Tucker " reached a top speed of during her trials . " Tucker " 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 . " Tucker " 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 " Tucker " - 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 " Tucker " or any of the other ships of the class . Early career . USS " Tucker " was commissioned into the United States Navy on 11 April 1916 under the temporary command of Lieutenant , junior grade , Frank Slingluff , Jr . ; Lieutenant Commander Benyaurd B . Wygant assumed permanent command 13 days later . Following her commissioning , " Tucker " commenced trials off the east coast before reporting to Division 8 , Destroyer Force , United States Atlantic Fleet . With World War I ongoing in Europe , " Tucker " and units of the Fleet conducted exercises and maneuvers in southern and Cuban waters into the spring of 1917 . Steaming independently in the West Indies , she received word of the United States ' declaration of war on 6 April 1917 . " Tucker " joined the fleet at its anchorage in the York River before being ordered to proceed to the Boston Navy Yard , for fitting - out for war . World War I . The immediate and pressing need for escort ships led to the deployment of American destroyers to Queenstown , Ireland ; " Tucker " , , , , , and set out from Boston on 7 May 1917 as the second contingent of United States ships designated to operate in conjunction with British surface forces patrolling off the Irish coast . Arriving ten days later , " Tucker " and her sister ships soon commenced wartime operations . On 12 June , she rescued 47 survivors from the stricken merchantman ; on 1 August , she saved 39 men from , which had been torpedoed by German submarine . For the remainder of 1917 and into the late spring of 1918 , " Tucker " operated out of Queenstown , hunting German submarines , escorting and convoying ships through the submarine - infested war zones , and providing assistance to ships in distress . In June 1918 , " Tucker " joined the escorts working out of Brest , France . On 1 August , while steaming out to meet an inbound convoy , she received word that the group ' s escort , the , had been torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine . The American destroyer soon arrived on the scene and helped to save the survivors of the stricken French warship from the waters of the Bay of Biscay . " Tucker " s efforts , and those of the five other American destroyers who were also present , were rewarded by a commendation from the " Préfet Maritime " , on behalf of the French Ministry of Marine . " Tucker " obtained her share of the submarine hunting the day after assisting in the rescue of " Dupetit - Thuoars " crew , on 8 August . Sighting a U - boat , " Tucker " sped to the attack , dropping depth bombs on the vessel . The British Admiralty gave credit to " Tucker " for a " possibly sunk " as a result of the attack . As antisubmarine warfare was in its infancy , however , attempts to verify the " kill " proved to be inconclusive . On 11 November 1918 , the armistice was signed , and hostilities ceased along the war - torn Western Front . Post - war . While American forces withdrew from Europe and headed home to the United States , " Tucker " carried passengers and mail between French and British ports . Departing from Brest for the last time on 16 December 1918 , she headed for Boston , where she entered the navy yard for extended repairs . In July 1919 , she departed Boston and cruised along the coastlines of Massachusetts and Maine , engaged in recruiting duty . In October 1919 , she was placed in reserve in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , where she remained until placed out of commission on 16 May 1921 . On 17 July 1920 , " Tucker " was designated " DD - 57 " under the Navy ' s new hull classification system . 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 . " Tucker " was activated and acquired by the Coast Guard on 25 March 1926 , as part of a second group of five to augment the original twenty . Designated " CG - 23 " , " Tucker " was commissioned on 29 September , and joined the " Rum Patrol " to aid in the attempt to enforce prohibition laws . She served as the flagship of Division 4 of the Destroyer Force through October 1927 , when she was transferred to Division 1 . On 4 April 1933 , the greatest disaster which aeronautics had experienced up to that time occurred off the New Jersey coast . The Navy airship crashed in a storm killing 73 men , including Rear Admiral William A . Moffett , Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics . " Tucker " received word of the crash and sped to the scene . Upon arrival , she found that the German motorship had rescued four men from the sea — one of whom died shortly after being rescued . The survivors were transferred to " Tucker " and were disembarked at the New York Navy Yard . After the United States Congress proposed the Twenty - first Amendment to end prohibition in February 1933 , plans were made for " Tucker " to be returned to the Navy . On 26 May , " Tucker " arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard , and was decommissioned ten days later , on 5 June . " Tucker " was transferred back to the Navy on 30 June . On 1 November , " Tucker " was renamed " DD - 57 " in order to free the name " Tucker " for a new destroyer of the same name . For a time , " DD - 57 " served as a Sea Scout training ship at Sandy Hook , New Jersey . She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 October 1936 . " DD - 57 " was sold on 10 December and reduced to a hulk on 23 December .