U.S.S. Sampson (1916)

U.S.S. Sampson (1916)
Hull Number:	DD-63
Builder:	Fore River
Laid down:	21 Apr, 1915
Launched:	4 Mar, 1916
Commissioned:	27 Jun, 1916
Decommissioned:	25 Jun, 1921
Stricken:	7 Jan, 1936
Sold:

U.S.S. Sampson was one of six Sampson class destroyers completed for the U.S. Navy.

Service

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

Sampson was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 27 June, 1916 with Commander B. C. Sampson in command.

Sampson was assigned to Division 9 of the Atlantic Destroyer Force and conducted shakedown training out of Narragansett Bay.

During the First World War she was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Mark L. Hersey, Jr.. Hersey would receive the Navy Cross for distinguished service while commanding the Sampson and rise to the rank of commodore during the Second World War.

After war games off Provincetown, Massachusetts, Sampson cleared Tompkinsville, New York on 15 May 1917 to join the escort screen of a convoy which touched at Halifax and reached Queenstown, Ireland, on 25 May 1917. She reported for duty with the United States Naval Forces operating in European waters and was assigned to convoy escort duty in the approaches to the British Isles, basing her operations from Queenstown. Two British-type depth charge projectors were installed on her stern; and, on 29 May, she commenced escort duty and protected the troop transports and merchant convoys from hostile submarines throughout the remainder of World War I.

On 18 June 1917, Sampson rescued two small boat loads of survivors of the English Monarch and the captain and 13 sailors from Elele. The next morning, she picked up another 17 survivors of Elele; and, on the 20th, she landed all at Queenstown. Sampson answered other distress calls before the end of the war, and she made several attacks to drive off submarines reported or seen near her convoys. She steamed from France with the Queenstown division of destroyers on 29 November 1918 and stood out from Brest Harbor on 12 December to escort President Woodrow Wilson on board George Washington into the harbor. Returning to Queenstown on 14 December, she sailed for home on the 26th and arrived at the New York Navy Yard on 7 January 1919.

Captains

• Lieutenant Commander Burrell C. Allen, 27 June, 1916 – before November, 1917
• Lieutenant Commander Mark L. Hersey, Jr., 26 November, 1917

See Also

• Wikipedia