USS Mc Farland (DD-237) - Service History

Service History

McFarland, having served a month with the Atlantic Fleet, departed for European waters 30 November 1920. For the next 2 months she operated in the English Channel, sailing for Gibraltar 31 January 1921. On 9 March she arrived at Split for a 4-month tour with the Adriatic Detachment. In July she continued eastward, and at Constantinople, on the 31st, joined ships of the Turkish Waters Detachment.

Returning to the United States only once (8 July to 22 October 1922), McFarland remained in the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean area until spring 1923. During that period she performed quasi-diplomatic and humanitarian roles necessitated by the aftermath of World War I. She cruised regularly to Black Sea and Anatolian ports, distributing American relief supplies to Russian, Greek, and Turkish refugees and providing transportation, mail, and communications facilities.

McFarland returned to New York and on 15 September 1923 joined the Scouting Fleet at Newport, Rhode Island. With only two interruptions, she operated along the east coast and in the Caribbean for the next 17 years. The first interruption came with a cruise to Hawaii for the 1925 fleet problem involving an attack on Oahu; the second, a year out of commission, in reserve, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1931. On 2 August 1940, McFarland, undergoing conversion, was redesignated AVD-14, seaplane tender (destroyer). On 5 October she was recommissioned in full and assigned to the Pacific Fleet.

McFarland was heavily damaged during the early morning of 19 September 1923 after being rammed in the port bow by the battleship Arkansas during a training exercise off of the Cape Code Canal. The exercise was being undertaken by Arkansas, the battleship Florida, the auxiliary ship Antares and a flotilla of a dozen destroyers. McFarland was towed to Boston Navy Yard by the destroyer Sturtevant .