USS Aylwin ( DD - 47 ) USS " Aylwin " ( Destroyer No . 47 / DD - 47 ) 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 second U . S . Navy vessel named in honor of John Cushing Aylwin , a U . S . Navy officer killed in action aboard during the War of 1812 . " Aylwin " was laid down by William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia in March 1912 and launched in November . 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 . " Aylwin " was powered by a pair of steam turbines that propelled her at up to " Aylwin " failed to make her contracted speed of in builder ' s trials in August 1913 , but was eventually accepted by the U . S . Navy and commissioned in January 1914 . On 6 April , two sailors onboard " Aylwin " died when she suffered an explosion in her No . 1 fire room . Out of commission while repairs were made , " Aylwin " was recommissioned in May 1915 and joined the Atlantic Fleet . 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 . After the United States entered World War I in April 1917 , " Aylwin " conducted experiments with Reginald Fessenden until January 1918 . She was then sent overseas to conduct anti - submarine patrols from Queenstown , Ireland , and Plymouth . In December , she accompanied light cruiser on an inspection tour of German Baltic ports . Upon returning to the United States at the end of June 1919 , " Aylwin " was placed in reserve . She was decommission ed at Philadelphia in February 1921 . In July 1933 she dropped her name , becoming known only as DD - 47 . She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in March 1935 and ordered scrapped in April . Design and construction . " Aylwin " was authorized in March 1911 as the lead ship of the four - ship , 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 7 May 1912 . On 23 November , " Aylwin " was launched by sponsor Mrs . Joseph Wright Powell , wife of the assistant to the president of the Cramp shipyard . The ship was the second U . S . Navy ship named for John Cushing Aylwin , a U . S . Navy officer killed in action aboard during the War of 1812 . As built , the destroyer was in length , abeam , and drew . The ship had a standard displacement of and displaced when fully loaded . " Aylwin " 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 , and it was hoped , move the ship at the design speed of . However , during builder ' s trials conducted in July 1913 , " Aylwin " failed to reach this speed , and was withdrawn from testing . After sister ship " Palmer " exceeded the design speed in August with a different propeller design , " The Washington Post " reported that " Aylwin " s propellers would be changed to the new design . " Aylwin " 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 . " Aylwin " was also equipped with eight torpedo tube s . Pre - World War I . " Aylwin " was commissioned into the U . S . Navy on 17 January 1914 , under the command of Lieutenant Commander Leigh C . Palmer , the former naval aide of U . S . Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels . Following a short cruise to Cuba , " Aylwin " conducted operations off the North Carolina coast in April . On 6 April , she 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 . The crews of all three destroyers raised $ 250 to help defray funeral expenses for the widow of one of the men . " Aylwin " remained afloat but , unmanned , was towed into Norfolk by " Parker " and U . S . Navy tug , arriving on 7 April . According to a report in " The Washington Post " , " Aylwin " made it to port with only five hours of buoyancy to spare . The report described the fore deck of the ship as " badly rent and torn up " and noted that two of the destroyer ' s four stack s were knocked out of alignment by the blast , with one askew at a 25° angle from its normal position . The newspaper speculated that faulty metal in the No . 1 boiler ' s mud drum was the cause of the explosion . Although repairs were estimated to take roughly three months , " Aylwin " was placed out of commission and remained inactive for more than a year at the Norfolk Navy Yard . She was recommissioned on 25 May 1915 and assigned to the 6th Division , Torpedo Flotilla , Atlantic Fleet . The ship then cruised along the east coast carrying out routine patrols . Prior to the entrance of the United States into World War I , she served on Neutrality Patrol s , 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 , " Aylwin " 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 " Aylwin " 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 . At one point , Rose signaled " Aylwin " requesting that she move out of the way to allow " Stephano " to be torpedoed , much to the later chagrin of Lord Beresford , who denounced " Aylwin " s compliance as " aiding and abetting " the Germans in a speech in the House of Lords . In total , 226 survivors from " U - 53 " s five victims were rescued by the destroyer flotilla . " Aylwin " picked up the crew of " Stephano " and a number of passengers , later transferring them to destroyer for return to Newport . During the early months of 1917 , " Aylwin " sailed to Cuban waters for winter maneuvers and returned to the Virginia capes area upon America ' s entry into World War I . World War I . From June 1917 - January 1918 , the destroyer participated in special experimental work with Reginald Fessenden while operating out of Boston , Massachusetts , and Newport , Rhode Island . On 4 January 1918 , " Aylwin " sailed for Queenstown , Ireland ; and , shortly after her arrival there , began patrolling out of that port . However , shortly thereafter , she was detached to join British forces operating from Portsmouth and Devonport in conducting antisubmarine patrols . " Aylwin " remained in European waters following the end of the war . On 26 December 1918 , she sailed in company with light cruiser for an inspection tour of the Baltic ports of Germany . The ships , which , were operating under the auspices of the Inter - Allied Naval Armistice Commission , were to remove any American prisoners of war or citizens discovered in the German ports . Postwar . In May 1919 , the base of operations for U . S . destroyers in European waters was shifted from Brest , France , to Antwerp , and " Aylwin " , arriving there on 22 May , was the first ship to relocated to the Belgian port . The following month , " Aylwin " returned to Brest , and departed from there for the United States , arriving at New York on 26 June . She then proceeded to the Philadelphia Navy Yard where she was placed in reserve . " Aylwin " was decommission ed at Philadelphia on 23 February 1921 . On 1 July 1933 , she dropped the name " Aylwin " to free it for a new destroyer of the same name , becoming known only as " DD - 47 " . The ship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 8 March 1935 , and on 23 April was ordered scrapped in accordance with the terms of the London Naval Treaty .