USS Cowell (DD-167) - As USS Cowell

As USS Cowell

Named for John G. Cowell, she was launched 23 November 1918 by Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts; sponsored by Miss E. P. Garney; and commissioned 17 March 1919, Lieutenant Commander C. E. Van Hook in command.

Cowell cleared Boston, Massachusetts, 3 May 1919, to take station at Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, first stopping point for the Navy seaplanes which that month began the historic first aerial crossing of the Atlantic. After patrolling her station, she returned to Boston 22 May to prepare for European service, and on 30 June sailed from New York to join the American naval force in the Adriatic. Here she served as dispatch ship for the Allied Peace Commission, and as station ship at Croatian (then in Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ports of Rijeka, Split, and Trogir, in turn until 23 October, when she cleared for home.

In reserve at Boston and Charleston from 1 December 1919, Cowell put to sea for a training period out of Newport, Rhode Island, with a reserve organization from April through October 1921, returning to Charleston. On 27 June 1922, she was decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she lay until recommissioned 17 June 1940 for patrol duty in the Atlantic. She cruised along the east coast on this duty until 18 September 1940 when she arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, there to be decommissioned 23 September 1940 and transferred to the Royal Navy the same day in the land bases for destroyers exchange.

See USS Cowell for other ships of this name.

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