USS Cushing (DD-55) - World War I

World War I

After the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917 entering World War I, Cushing was put to sea from New York on 15 May 1917 with Cummings, Nicholson, O'Brien, and Sampson. The destroyers arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, 24 May for duty in the war zone.

Cushing patrolled off the Irish coast, meeting and escorting convoys of merchant ships and troop transports to British ports and the French coast. German submarines were active in the area and Cushing conducted antisubmarine patrols and performed rescue work on the ships that were victims of U-boats. On 4 June, she picked up 13 men adrift in a small boat, survivors of Italian brig Luisa.

The destroyer had a busy July. On the 7th, she assisted Perkins in rescuing survivors of the torpedoed and sinking British merchant ship SS Tarquah. The next day she responded to an SOS from SS Onitsha, which was being chased by an enemy submarine, and picked up 54 survivors of SS Obuasi which had already been sunk. On 16 July she escorted SS Tamele to safety after the merchantman had received five hits, and the same day fired on two submarines—U-49 and U-58—at extremely long range following their attack on the Italian merchant vessel SS Lamia L., from whom Cushing rescued 27 survivors.

On 12 September, five survivors from the British SS Vienna were saved after being adrift for 2 days. On 26 November, when RFA Crenella was torpedoed, Cushing stood by, giving damage control assistance which kept the merchantman from sinking, then escorted her into Queenstown. Cushing rejoined her convoy the next day. Continuing her convoy escort and patrol duty, Cushing on 23 April 1918 dropped fifteen depth charges on German submarine U-104, damaging her severely; HMS Jessamine sank U-104 later that same day. After 11 June 1918, Cushing operated from Brest, France, escorting eleven troop convoys through the submarine zones into French ports, making two depth charge attacks without success in the process.