USS BURROWS DD-29

The new destroyer had been at sea for barely over a month when in the early morning of 23 March 1911 Burrows blew ashore at Newport R.I.  The episode began after the destroyer anchored in Newport Harbor on the previous evening. The commanding officer, Lt. Julius F. Hellweg took a small boat ashore leaving Ens. Richard S. Edwards, acting in his stead. The wind freshened in the early morning causing the destroyer to drag her anchor.  Crewmembers awoke Edwards at the conclusion of the mid watch and the officer — destined to attain the rank of admiral and Vice Chief of Naval Operations (VCNO) — realized his ship was grounded at the foot of Cherry Street.  Fortunately for the young officer, the ship rested easily on sand, and when initial attempts at towing her back into the harbor failed, he resolved to wait for high tide. Hellweg reassumed command at 0645.  The more experienced officer used heavy anchors from the Newport Torpedo Station to kedge the vessel back into deeper waters.  The destroyer suffered negligible damage.

Prior to World War I, Burrows was attached to the Torpedo Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, and operated with the Fleet along the east coast and in Cuban waters according to the established schedules of tactical maneuvers, war games, torpedo practice, and gunnery.  Early in 1916 Burrows was assigned to the Neutrality Patrol in the Staten Island-Long Island area of New York.

The U.S. declared War on Germany on 6 April 1917 and officially entered the Great War on the side of the Triple Entente.  Burrows received news of hostilities while she was attached to the Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet, and stationed at New York City under the command of Lt. Harold V. McKittrick.  The next day, she reported to the commander of Squadron Two, Patrol Force, and joined its flagship Birmingham (Scout Cruiser No. 2) and a second destroyer to search for a rumored German surface raider off Nantucket, Mass.  After the force failed to locate the phantom raider, Burrows returned to New York on 10 August and patrolled outside of the port to protect it from potential submarine attack.  On 16 April, she departed New York for Key West, Fla. where she patrolled the Straits of Florida between Sand Key and Cuba starting on the 22nd.

Burrows received orders on 1 May to report to the Philadelphia [Pa.] Navy Yard and to prepare for distant service. She arrived on 4 May, and entered dry dock where the destroyer was overhauled in preparation for the rigors of service in European waters. She was undocked on 1 June, and provisioned and refueled to capacity over the next few days.  On the morning of 5 June, she stood out from Philadelphia to the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., and on to New London, Conn., where she tested a submarine detection and signaling device known as a Fessenden Oscillator in conjunction with D-2 (Submarine No. 18).  Following the tests, she returned to New York and continued her pre-deployment preparations.

On 14 June 1917, Burrows and warships of the Cruiser and Transport Force Group 2 stood from New York escorting transports carrying troops of the American Expeditionary Force to France.  On 23 June, U.S. destroyers stationed in Europe met the convoy mid-ocean and they continued on to France. On 26 June, Cummings (Destroyer No. 44) sighted a submarine, and went all ahead full and dropped a pattern of depth charges on the spot of the sighting. Burrows went to general quarters and followed in Cummings’ wake, dropping a second pattern before the water calmed. Both attacks proved unsuccessful and the convoy followed an alternate course toward France as Burrows steamed ahead full to regain her position. Two days later, the convoy stood into the Loire River Estuary unharmed and Burrows anchored in St. Nazaire harbor.

The destroyer participated in patrols off the French western coast until 4 July 1917, when she transferred with five other American destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland, arriving on the following day.  She began patrol and escort duty on 20 July in the western approaches to the British Isles where German U-Boats were inflicting heavy losses on allied and neutral shipping. The destroyer sighted a submarine on both 27 and 28 July, but in both cases the boat submerged before the American could respond.

Ten days into her new assignment, on 30 July 1917, she was escorting the British steamship Nevisbrock when an unseen torpedo slammed into the merchantman. The steamer sank and Burrows rescued the entire crew. No crewmembers on either the destroyer or Nevisbrock ever saw the offending submarine. Burrows disembarked the crew at Queenstown on 1 August.

On 20 August 1917, Burrows dropped depth charges on what appeared to be a moving oil wake spreading westward.  The commanding officer believed that the oil emanated from a submerged U-boat, so she dropped depth charges in front of the interpreted source. Aside from a heavy smell of crude oil, the depth charge produced no noticeable effects.

Destroyers during World War I, especially 742-tonners like Burrows, proved highly vulnerable to heavy weather.  On 27 August 1917, the destroyer was braving particularly heavy seas en route to a convoy rendezvous point.  Two sailors lost their footing in the bucking and rolling of the swells and their falls rendered them unconscious.  She continued to convoy merchant vessels and patrol the Western Approaches throughout September and October 1917. Burrows struck rock at 1955 in Holyhead Harbor, Wales, on 6 November, resulting in extensive damage below the waterline on her port side. She passed the majority of November in dry dock at the Cammell Laird Shipyard in Liverpool, England.

A board of inquiry determined Lt. Cmdr. McKittrick, the ship’s commanding officer, responsible, although it also cited several mitigating circumstances due to harsh weather and difficult navigating conditions.  The board even commended McKittrick for his skill in saving the ship.  The board deemed a verbal admonition from Vice Adm. William S. Sims, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in European Waters to the commander of Burrows sufficient punishment.  The damage coincided with the vessel’s regular refit period and workers made repairs concurrently with routine maintenance. She resumed patrolling and convoy duty on 20 November 1917.

Burrows had a scrape with a submarine while escorting a convoy at 1503 on 13 December 1917. Davis (Destroyer No. 65) sighted a submarine and opened fire. Thirty minutes later, Ericsson (Destroyer No. 56) dropped depth charges on a contact.  Minutes later, a torpedo wake passed under the stern of Burrows but missed the lead ship of the convoy, passing astern of her.

Tragedy struck Burrows at 0901 on 19 January 1918, however, when the oil line from no. 3 oil pump to the governor severed resulting in an out-of-control fire.  The crew battled the flames as sailors from Drayton (Destroyer No. 23), Jenkins (Destroyer No. 42), Balch (Destroyer No. 50) and Parker (Destroyer No. 48) assisted.  The sailors extinguished the fire at 1030, but not after damage to the ship and the death of water tenders M. O’Callaghan and C.E. Bourke.  The sailors died in an attempt to reach the foam fire extinguisher in the no. 2 fire room.

At 1045 on 5 February 1918, an operator of an installed listening device reported a submarine submerged close aboard on the starboard side. Burrows crossed the location of the sound and dropped a single depth charge on an oil wake with no visible results. Later that month, on 23 February, the German submarine U-91 (Kapitänleutnant Alfred von Glasenapp, commanding) torpedoed and shelled the British tanker Birchleaf near Skerries, Ireland.  Burrows searched for the attacker and one hour later dropped a depth charge on a disturbance in the water but witnessed no apparent results. Three days later she dropped two depth charges on an oil slick 

Burrows witnessed destroyers with another convoy to the east dropping large numbers of depth charges at 1213 on 16 March 1918; she hurried to the scene of the attacks and sighted a periscope on the port quarter at 1407. The periscope dipped below the surface and Burrows dropped four depth charges on its estimated track. Again the destroyer did not witness any apparent results.

Forty-four minutes into the mid watch on 19 May 1918, a torpedo crossed Burrows’ bow, 20 feet away, heading port to starboard. The officer of the deck sounded general quarters and pushed Burrows to full speed. Two hours later the watch spotted a conning tower 1,500 yards distant, but before the American could take up chase, the enemy submerged. Burrows scoured the vicinity of the sighting until 0420 when she intercepted a call from Patterson (Destroyer No. 36) requesting assistance engaging allegedly damaged submarines. At 0730, she joined with three U.S. destroyers and two British warships in a depth charge attack against a large bubbling oil slick believed to emanate from the crippled U-boat.  The destroyers broke off the attack in the late morning, with the Admiralty later ruling that they likely slightly damaged their target.

The following day at 0021, Burrows was on an antisubmarine patrol off Bardsey Island, Wales, when she collided with British P-class sloop P.62 in heavy weather.  The smaller British vessel struck Burrows on the starboard side in the No. 1 fire room. The crew responded quickly to the collision. As water poured in through the damaged bulkhead the crew extinguished fires in the fire rooms, released safety valves and engaged the pumps. Before Burrows’ crew gained control of the situation and applied the collision mat, the destroyer took on four feet of water. Underway again at 0139, P.62 accompanied Burrows up the Mersey River to the Woodside Stage across the river from Liverpool. There, at 1410, she attempted to make a landing at the stage only to strike the dock, and while out of control collided with the steam barge Gertie, which subsequently sunk. By 1416, the destroyer tied up to the stage and the unfortunate day came to an end. 

After a drydocking for repairs (21 May – 6 June 1918), Burrows stood down the Mersey on 7 June and set course for Queenstown which she reached on 8 June.  Following her arrival, the ship nearly suffered a disaster when, at 2335 on 9 June, an electrical fire broke out under the stored depth charges on board.  If the charges exploded the ship undoubtedly would have been destroyed.  The rapid response and efficiency of Burrow’s sailors saved the vessel and put out the blaze within ten minutes. Investigation determined that the recent overhaul and repairs had led to an electrical malfunction and the fire.

Burrows transferred to Brest, France to begin convoy operations out of that port. On 17 July 1918 the destroyer was escorting a convoy with seven other destroyers, when she spotted a suspicious wake nearby.  Believing that the wake could emanate from a submerged submarine, she dropped eighteen depth charges over ten minutes. Approximately twenty minutes after the barrage subsided, Carpenter John Reid, Jr., fell overboard. Burrows backed her engines, stopped and lowered a boat, whose crew retrieved the lucky sailor. 

Burrows travails continued on 20 July 1918, however, while convoying three transports in company with Nicholson (Destroyer No. 52), Lamson (Destroyer No. 18), and Flusser (Destroyer No. 20). The large transports had little difficulty steaming at high speeds through heavy seas, but the conditions proved dangerous for their diminutive escorts. The convoy slowed to 15 knots, but not before Burrows suffered significant damage from the sea, including lost and damaged stanchions, a buckled forecastle deck, and various damage to the interior of the ship.

While underway during the afternoon of 3 August 1918, the watch spotted a small boat ahead.  Burrows stopped at 1210 to investigate and identified the sighting as a lifeboat from the torpedoed Brazilian steamship Maceio, which had been sunk by U-43 (Kapitänleutnant Johannes Kirchner) earlier that day. The U.S. sailors brought 22 survivors on board, then, spotting another lifeboat on the starboard beam at 1225, closed and rescued another 22 men.  The destroyer continued her patrol with the Brazilians on board before disembarking them at Brest on 7 August. 

Burrows was escorting the westbound convoy OR.67 with five fellow U.S. destroyers on 9 August 1918. At 1128, a lookout sighted a submarine on the surface. She increased her speed to 25 knots and closed on the spot of the sighting. The submarine submerged and at 1156, the destroyer began dropping depth charges. Before leaving the scene she dropped thirty-four charges.  Two hours later, she spotted a strange sail on the horizon and closed to investigate. The sail disappeared, indicating that the sighting was a possible submarine. At 1406 she dropped five more charges at the approximate location where the sail was sighted.  None of the depth charges achieved any apparent results. The gun crews fired on an apparent mine at 1552 but the target was later identified as an empty oil drum. 

Burrows broke off from a convoy on the evening of 15 August 1918 to assist the crew of the mortally damaged Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) cargo ship Montanan. She spotted both Montanan and the NOTS cargo ship West Bridge (Id. No. 2888) in sinking condition, both having been torpedoed by U-90 (Oberleutnant zur See Helmut Patzig).  At 0715, Burrows pulled alongside West Bridge and embarked 101 survivors — 16 officers, 83 men, and two stowaways — and set course for Brest to disembark them. At 1648 a lookout sighted a suspicious object and Burrows closed on it at full speed. The object proved to be a lifeboat from the French fishing smack J.M.J. that had been sunk by gunfire from U-90. Burrows picked up the five survivors and reached Brest at 1030 on 17 August. Lt. Cmdr. Abner Steckel, commanding officer of Burrows, was later issued a letter of reprimand after a court of inquiry decided that he had committed a grave error by Burrows’ leaving the vicinity of West Bridge while she was still afloat. West Bridge survived the torpedo attack, however, and British tugs Epic and Woonda took her in tow, with Smith (Destroyer No. 17) providing escort for the little convoy after Burrows left the scene.

On 4 September 1918, the destroyer was escorting convoy HN.01 when a torpedo from U-82 (Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Middendorff) struck the U.S. steamer Dora.  While other escorts assisted the sinking Dora, Burrows dropped 27 depth charges over the next hour, achieving no visible results. A little over a week later, on 13 September, Burrows was cruising in the dark when a French fishing vessel struck the destroyer’s port bow and sank. While Burrows retrieved four seamen and Flusser rescued one, three of their shipmates died in the accident.  She disembarked the remaining fisherman after returning to Brest on 14 September.  She participated in convoy operations throughout the month of October and at the end of the month steamed to Birkenhead, England, for repairs and refitting.

Burrows lay at the Cammell-Laird yard when the Armistice took effect on 11 November 1918. When work on Burrows was completed on 28 November she returned to Brest by way of Queenstown, and passed in review outside of the French port on 13 December when President Woodrow Wilson arrived on board the troop transport George Washington (Id. No. 3018) for peace negotiations.  She departed Brest on 16 December for Philadelphia, touching at the Azores and Bermuda en route.

Burrows arrived in Philadelphia on 2 January 1919, remaining at the port for the following month.  On 3 February she steamed to Charleston, S.C. and operated out of that port throughout the spring. In the following months, she visited various port towns along the eastern seaboard to support the Victory Loan war bond drive. On 16 July, Burrows stood in to the Philadelphia Navy Yard and upon arrival anchored in League Island’s back channel.  There she remained until 12 December 1919, when the Navy placed her out of commission.

On 17 July 1920, while then ship lay in reserve at Philadelphia, the Navy re-designated Burrows from Destroyer No. 29 to DD-29.  Burrows was stricken from the Navy Register on 7 June 1924, and she was transferred that same day to the Treasury Department at Philadelphia Navy Yard for service with the U.S. Coast Guard.

Re-designated as CG-10, Burrows retained her name. Assigned to service with the Coast Guard’s Destroyer Force, she was to interdict the illegal importation of alcohol in the enforcement of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition). In the end the rehabilitation of the destroyers became a saga in itself because of the exceedingly poor condition of many of the war-weary ships. It took nearly a year to remove the installed antisubmarine equipment and rehabilitate the vessels to bring them up to seaworthiness. Additionally, the destroyers proved by far the largest and most sophisticated vessels ever operated by the Coast Guard and trained crewmen were nearly non-existent. As a result, Congress subsequently authorized hundreds of new enlisted billets. It was these inexperienced recruits that generally made up the destroyer crews.