USS Hull (DD-7) - World War I

World War I

Hull spent the years before World War I on patrol and training exercises off the California coast. She decommissioned on 30 October 1912 and joined the Reserve Torpedo Division at Mare Island, with which she made occasional training cruises to California ports. When America entered the war in April 1917, Hull was being refitted at Mare Island. She sailed with other destroyers for the Panama Canal Zone on 25 April and for the next three months was engaged in defensive patrol off the western approaches to that vital waterway. She sailed to Norfolk on 26 July for escort and patrol duty along the East Coast. In the months that followed, Hull escorted ships to Bermuda and engaged in training maneuvers with other ships of the fleet as well. In June 1918, she broke up an attack by German submarine U-151 on a merchant ship, and often rescued sailors from sinking ships. She continued this vital ocean patrol duty until the end of the war.

Hull arrived at Philadelphia on 29 January 1919, and decommissioned on 7 July. She was sold on 5 January 1921 to Joseph G. Hitner of Philadelphia.