USS Cassin in Haulbowline Drydock, showing stern damage
USS Cassin arrived in Queenstown (now Cobh) in the south of Ireland, on the 17th of May, 1917. She was in company of Rowan, Tucker, Ericsson, Winslow and Jacob Jones. Queenstown was the centre for anti-submarine forces, on the Western Approaches, under the command of Admiral Lewis Bayley, Commander in Chief , Coast of Ireland. The Cassin commenced operations a week later.
Initially there was uncertainty as to the most effective use of destroyers. At first they were given patrol areas which they would scout, singly or in pairs. Any stray incoming merchantmen seen, were to be escorted to near their destinations. This was a most ineffective use of the force, as the chances of coming across, and destroying a lone submarine in the vastness of the Western Approaches was virtually nil.
By Summer 1917, under the urging of commanders such as Admiral Sims, Commander of US Naval Forces in Europe, the convoy system was initiated. Groups of merchantmen were escorted through the war zone by flanking destroyer screens. This had the dual effect of reducing the amount of targets for German u-boats, and allowing destroyers and sloops to attack the harassing submarines. The priorities of the destroyers were to:
Destroy Submarines.
Protect and escort Merchantmen.
Save the crews and passengers of torpedoed ships.
Anti-submarine patrols did continue also for the duration of the war, especially in the Irish Sea and close to the coast of France, where u-boats would try to sink merchantmen as the convoys dispersed. In 1918, any destroyer in the Irish Sea, which was not actively convoying, came under the orders of The Irish Sea Hunting Flotilla, under the command of Captain Gordon Campbell VC based in Holyhead, Wales. US destroyers were also used to patrol the west coast of Ireland to hunt suspected gun-running ships, for Irish Republicans.
The destroyers , initially, were ill-equipped to fight submerged submarines. When they arrived in Europe they were armed with guns and torpedoes. The only undersea weapons supplied were single hand-launched 50lb depth charges which were particularly ineffective. It was the later fitting of dual depth charge racks on the sterns of the ships, Thornycroft depth charge throwers, and Y shaped charge throwers that turned them into a dangerous force. These were capable of dropping and firing a continuous patterned barrage of 200lb, charges around a submarine's suspected position. Most of the retro-fitting of these armaments was done at Cammel Laird in Birkenhead, England.
On the 22nd of May, 1917, Cassin sunk the derelict Lynton, floating bottom up, in position 51.02N, 08.41W.
On the 5th of June, 1917, the SS Manchester Miller was torpedoed, in position 52.57N, 14.35W. USS Jacob Jones, and USS Cassin, who had been on patrol joined the escort, as the Manchester Miller was taken in tow by HMS Camellia. The damaged ship however, sank, and Jacob Jones and Cassin were ordered back on patrol.
In the week of the 21st of July, 1917, USS Porter, USS Nicholson, USS Cassin, USS Ericsson, and USS O’Brien returned from convoy duty in France. The latter two ships escorting to Queenstown the USS Kanawha
On the 4th of August, 1917, when in position 15 miles SW of Kinsale, USS Cassin sighted periscope. Cassin manoeuvred to attack but periscope disappeared.
On the 28th of September, 1917, the Q-Ship HMS Cullist damaged an enemy submarine, and chased her on the surface. USS Cassin, USS Ericsson, and HMS Tamarisk joined in the chase. Ericsson caught up with the enemy, and shelled her, but lost her in the darkness.
On the 27th of June, 1918, the hospital ship Landovery Castle was torpedoed and sunk in pos 116 miles 247deg from Fastnet Rock. HMS Lysander picked up one boat containing 24 survivors. HMS Snowdrop, HMS Safeguard, and USS Cassin searched for survivors. USS Kimberley, USS Stockton and USS Sterrett joined Snowdrop in search at 7am on June 30th.
On the 14th of July, 1918, USS Davis, Cassin, Allen, and Conyngham escorted HMS Aquitania from 15.00W to Liverpool.
On the 15th of July, 1918 USS Davis, Allen. Cassin, Conyngham, and Sampson, escorted HMS Mauretania from Liverpool to 15.00W.
On the 3rd of August 1918, USS Stockton, Downes, Sampson, Cassin, and Ammen, escorted HMS Mauretania from 15.00W, to Liverpool. On the 10th of August 1918, USS Stevens, Cassin, Sampson, Balch, and Beale, escorted HMS Aquitania from 15.00W to Liverpool.
On the 7th of September 1918, USS Alwyn, Cassin, Sampson, and Trippe, escorted HMS Aquitania from 15.00W to Southampton.
On the 30th of Septemebr 1918, USS Cassin and McCall escorted hay transport Penare from Queenstown to Falmouth.
On the 12th and 13th of December 1918, Cassin was chosen as one of the escort for the George Washington, carrying President Woodrow Wilson into Brest, France, for his attendance at the Versailles Peace Conference.
Cassin returned to Boston, Mass., 3 January 1919.
USSAllen- USS Ammen- USS Aylwin- USS Balch- USS Beale- USS Benham- USS Burrows- USS Caldwell- USS Cassin- USS Conyingham- USS Cummings- USS Cushing- USS Davis- USS Downes- USS Drayton- USSDuncan- USS Ericsson- USS Fanning- USS Jacob Jones USS Jarvis- USS Jenkins- USS Kimberly- USS Manley- USS McCall- USS McDougal- USS Patterson- USS Paulding- USS Perkins- USS Porter- USS Rowan- USS Sampson- USS Shaw- USS Sterett- USS Stevens USS Stockton- USS Terry- USS Trippe- USS Tucker- USS Wadsworth- USS Wainwright- USS Walke- USS Warrington- USS Wilkes- USS Winslow-
SOURCES
There have been a number of publications detailing the history of Queenstown (Cobh) during World War One. The standard reference works are those those listed below
Danger Zone. The story of the Queenstown Command.
By E.Keeble Chatterton
Little, Brown and Co, Boston 1934
(copy available in Cork City Library – local history section top floor)
The Victory at Sea. By Rear-Admiral William Sowden Sims, Doubleday, Page and Company, New York, 1921.
Simsadus London, The American Navy in Europe.
By John Langdon Leighton.
Henry Holt & Co, New York, 1921.
Available to download here
Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy
For the Fiscal Year, 1918
Available to download here
Officers and Enlisted Men of the US Navy who died during WW1
Available to download here
Bayley’s Navy,
by Vice Admiral Walter.S.Delany (Rtd)
Available to download here
American Participation in the Great War,
by Captain Dudley W.Knox.
Available to download here
Naval Aviation in WW1,
by Adrian O. Van Wyen.
Available to download here
For Operational Records Various files from the Public Records Office,of the United Kingdom, Kew are invaluable, especially records of ADM137, which were files bound for the official history of WW1 Naval Operations. None of these records are digitised yet, and can only be accessed by visiting the British Public Records Office, Kew, near London.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
For photographs of the Queenstown Command, the following websites have many photographs available to download free of charge. Most of the aforementioned publications also have photographic illustrations.
US Naval History and Heritage Command website
www.history.navy.mil
United States National Archives Website
www.archives.gov/
The British Imperial War Museum
www.iwm.org.uk/research
This site contains many photographs of US and British Naval operations in Ireland. Importantly, it also has a number of copies of unique newsreel footage. These can be played on the site.