World War I
On 6 April 1917, America entered World War I on the side of Britain, France, and Italy. Whipple soon commenced patrols off the approaches to the vital Panama Canal before departing the Panama Canal Zone on 5 July.
Refitted for "distant service", the destroyer put to sea on 28 August, bound for the Atlantic war zone, and put into the Azores on 17 September. Whipple operated on escort duties, convoying ships to and from the strategic islands for the next three months.
She then received orders to report at Brest, France. Anti-submarine patrols and convoy escort duties occupied Whipple through the early spring of 1918. On 17 April, munition ship Florence H. blew up off Quiberon Bay. Braving flying debris from the exploding ship, Whipple joined Stewart and Truxtun in rescuing 32 men of the 77-man crew of that doomed vessel.
Whipple carried out her routine wartime patrol duties through the end of hostilities. On 9 December, the destroyer departed the French coast and headed homeward, touching at the Azores and Bermuda before making port at Philadelphia on 3 January 1919.
The destroyer was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 7 July, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 September. On 3 January 1920, Joseph G. Hitner, of Philadelphia, purchased the ship for scrapping.
Read more about this topic: USS Whipple (DD-15)
Famous quotes containing the words war i, world and/or war:
“War is the supreme drama of a completely mechanized society.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“In the beautiful, man sets himself up as the standard of perfection; in select cases he worships himself in it.... Man believes that the world itself is filled with beauty—he forgets that it is he who has created it. He alone has bestowed beauty upon the world—alas! only a very human, an all too human, beauty.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Bernstein: “Girls delightful in Cuba stop. Could send you prose poems about scenery but don’t feel right spending your money stop. There is no war in Cuba. Signed Wheeler.” Any answer?
Charles Foster Kane: Yes—Dear Wheeler, You provide the prose poems, I’ll provide the war.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1985)