USS Kane (DD-235) - Service History

Service History

Kane departed Newport, Rhode Island 20 August 1920 for her shakedown cruise to Gibraltar, Brest, Copenhagen, Danzig, and the Gulf of Riga. She was just outside the Gulf in the Baltic Sea 1 October 1920 and supposedly well clear of the minefields laid in World War I when a mine exploded, bending her port engine shafts and port propeller struts. After repair at Landskrona, Sweden, and overhaul at Chatham, England, she sailed 21 May 1921 for the Mediterranean.

On 22 June 1921, Kane rescued an Italian torpedo boat drifting upon the rocks off Cape Spartivento. On 3 July, she reached Constantinople for relief work in Turkish waters. She returned to Newport 23 August. She sailed 2 October with Destroyer Squadron 14 to evacuate refugees and perform other relief work in Asia Minor. She arrived in Constantinople 22 October, and was constantly used to carry supplies, medical aid, refugees and relief officials between ports of the Black Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean. She departed Constantinople 18 May 1923, and spent the next 5 years with the Scouting Fleet operating along the East Coast and in the Caribbean. She departed New York 13 February 1925 for a fleet training cruise to San Diego, California, and from there she sailed to Pearl Harbor and returned 17 July. In the spring of 1927 the destroyer patrolled off bandit-plagued Nicaragua and the Honduras. She decommissioned in the Philadelphia Navy Yard 31 December 1930.

Kane recommissioned 1 April 1932, and departed Philadelphia 29 June for San Diego, her base for the next 4 years. She got underway from San Diego 27 April 1936 for fleet exercises in the Caribbean before entering the New York Navy Yard to prepare for special service.

Kane departed New York 17 August 1936 for Spain to evacuate American citizens whose lives were endangered by the civil war in Spain. On 30 August, en route to Bilbao, she had to open fire three times to drive off a tri-motored monoplane dropping bombs within a hundred yards of the destroyer. A strong protest to both Spanish Civil War factions was made, and this forestalled similar incidents. She called at Bilbao and Gijon, embarking refugees who were taken to St. Jean de Luz, France.

Raleigh arrived at Gibraltar 27 September 1936 as flagship of Squadron Forty-T commanded by Rear Admiral Arthur P. Fairfield. This special squadron, initially comprising Raleigh, Kane and Hatfield, Cayuga, saved hundreds of American and other nationals from the dangers of the war in Spain. Kane and Hatfield were relieved by Claxton and Manley 9 November 1937 and sailed for home. Kane entered the Charleston Navy Yard 22 November, and decommissioned 28 April 1938.