USS CUMMINGS DD-44

The first Cummings (Destroyer No. 44) was laid down on 21 May 1912 at Bath, Maine, by Bath Iron Works.; launched on 6 August 1913; sponsored by Mrs. Henry Beates, Jr., niece of the late Lt. Cmdr. Cummings; and commissioned on 19 September 1913 at the Boston [Mass.] Navy Yard, Lt. Cmdr. Arthur Crenshaw in command.

Cummings, attached to the Sixth Division, Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla, sailed for Pensacola, Fla., on 4 November 1913 beginning her shakedown cruise, and continued her cruise in Cuban waters.  She returned to Hampton Roads in April 1914, and soon afterwards was ordered to duty in Mexican waters, where she remained until June 1914, when she sailed for Boston for overhaul, arriving at the yard on 18 June.

After visiting Baltimore, Md., to participate in the War of 1812 Centennial ceremonies there in September 1914, Cummings operated in the waters of Chesapeake Bay, conducting target practice and routine drills until December 1914, when she entered the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., for overhaul.  In February 1915, she joined other vessels of the fleet for winter maneuvers in Cuban waters.   Returning northward, she operated off Newport, R.I., until October when she again entered the Navy Yard for three months overhaul.  In the early part of 1916, Cummings returned to Cuban waters for maneuvers and later operated in the Caribbean.  In June she returned to operate off the northeast coast of the United States.

On 7 October 1916, the German submarine U-53 (Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose, commanding) entered Newport harbor, home to the Atlantic Fleet’s destroyer force.  After Kapitänleutnant Rose met with naval and civilian dignitaries and delivered dispatches to German diplomats, the boat beat a hasty retreat when the Americans threatened to intern her and her crew. The following day, U-53 sank five merchant vessels off the coast of New England. The destroyer force stood to sea on 8 October after receiving news of the destruction, some ships standing out in such haste that some left the majority of their crews on shore. Cummings served as the senior ship in the search for any remaining survivors on 9 October.  Although the destroyermen did not report recovering any further survivors all crewmembers of the five sunken vessels survived.

On 6 April 1917, the U.S. declared war on Germany and Cummings received her mobilization orders.  She served on picket duty near the York River until 11 April when she steamed to Key West, Fla., to patrol the Gulf of Mexico (14-29 April).  She then set course north, returning to the New York Navy Yard to fit out for foreign service, being assigned to the division consisting of Cushing (Destroyer No. 55), Nicholson (Destroyer No. 52), Sampson (Destroyer No. 63), Benham (Destroyer No. 49), and O’Brien (Destroyer No. 51). The destroyers first escorted two French warships, the battleship Lorraine and the armored cruiser Amiral Aube, out of New York then steamed to a point fifty miles east of Cape Cod, where Cmdr. David C. Hanrahan, his broad pennant in Cushing, opened sealed orders that instructed the division to steam to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, whence they would continue on to Queenstown [Cobh], Ireland.

When the division reached Queenstown on 24 May 1917 after its transatlantic voyage, the Americans had little time to rest, for the ships company and British workmen prepared the vessel for her mission, unloading mine tracks and minesweeping gear and installing anti-submarine equipment such as depth charges. Less than a week later, on 30 May, Cummings began patrolling the Western Approaches, and on 2 June lookouts spotted a suspicious object in the water.  The crew on No. 1 gun opened fire but on closer inspection their target proved to be a floating spar.  Sailors commonly misidentified debris, oceanic features, or even sea life, as enemy submarines in the Western approaches.  Inevitable mistakes in an environment where a ship’s safety depended on a lookout detecting the slightest disturbance at great distances in seas sometimes littered with floating debris.

Lookouts sighted a submarine periscope on 18 June 1917, 300 yards away on the starboard bow.  The periscope submerged immediately and the officer-on-deck ordered the rudder put over hard right and the ship closed on the spot where the submarine was sighted.  The destroyer dropped two depth charges, resulting in a “black blotch” thirty or forty yards in diameter spreading over the water.  The commanding officer surmised that the discoloration was from the depth charge explosive’s residue. Four days later, lookouts sighted a U-boat 1,000 yards on the port bow.  The destroyer rang down full speed and closed on the adversary but the submarine escaped. The green crew showed their inexperience when the jumpy torpedo crew fired a torpedo without orders.

The active month of June 1917 continued on the 26th when while guarding a troop convoy the crew spotted the bow wave of a submarine two points on the port bow about 1,500 yards away and closing.  Cummings crossed in front of the wake and dropped a depth charge ahead of it.  She left a buoy to mark the spot for other escorts.  The officers believed that the gun crews scored a direct hit with the charge, citing increased debris in the vicinity, discolored water and air bubbling from below the surface.  Officials originally speculated that the U-boat damaged by the attack was U-60 (Kapitänleutnant Karlgeorg Schuster, commanding) but information on U-boat activity collected after hostilities ended proved that the submarine was elsewhere at the time of the attack. Nonetheless, the British Admiralty recommended the ship’s commanding and executive officers for decorations.

After leaving Queenstown on 12 August 1917 at the start of a patrol, Cummings spotted an oil slick and dropped a depth charge ahead of it.  Gun crews dropped a second charge after the first did not explode, but noticed no apparent results.  On the night of 13-14 August, the destroyer was patrolling off the southwest coast of Ireland when, at 11:59 p.m., lookouts spotted a steamer through the dark on the port bow.  Suddenly, as Cummings initiated maneuvers to avoid the steamer, she spotted a tug on the starboard bow.  The executive officer, on duty on the bridge, blew a blast on the whistle, turned on the vessel’s running lights and put the rudder hard right as the mid watch began.  The tug turned to port, forcing the destroyer to back full while continuing hard right, but the maneuver came too late.  The tug, which proved to be HMS Flying Spray, blew three blasts on her whistle before colliding with Cummings, crumpling several plates and putting a hole on the port side.  While the damage proved serious, the ship did not take on any water and steamed to Queenstown.  She continued to Liverpool on 17 August and later to Chatham for refit and repairs.  She entered the dockyard at Chatham on 20 August and remained there until 31 August, a subsequent board of review determining that responsibility for the incident lay with the British vessel, proving Cummings to be correct in her actions and precautions.

While convoying the British steamer Virgil on 7 September 1917, lookouts sighted what appeared to be a submarine cruising, decks awash, 10,000 yards away on the starboard bow.  Cummings sounded general quarters and closed on the “enemy” at full speed, firing sixteen shots at what proved to be a partially submerged wreck.  After determining the nature of her target, the destroyer continued convoying the British vessel.

While escorting a convoy with U.S. and British destroyers on 17 November 1917, Cummings was present for the sinking of U-58 (Kapitänleutnant Gustav Amberger) by Fanning (Destroyer No. 37) and Nicholson when the former forced the submarine to surface following a well-placed depth charge.  The incident was the only confirmed U.S. victory over a German submarine unassisted by British forces during the World War.  On 7 December, she searched for survivors of the destroyer Jacob Jones (Destroyer No. 61) sunk the previous day by U-53 (Kapitänleutnant Rose).

In an early example of coordination, Cummings and a British dirigible attacked a suspicious oil slick on 11 December 1917. Over a fortnight later, U-61 (Kapitänleutnant Victor Dieckmann) torpedoed Santee, a “Q-Ship,” on 28 December. While the ship was designed to absorb a torpedo attack and trick a submarine into exposing herself to a counter-attack, Santee’s assailant anticipated the ruse and withdrew.  Cummings arrived to aid the vessel and escort her home.  She stood by as a tug brought Santee safely into Queenstown and recovered lifeboats containing the crew.

On the first day of 1918; Lt. Cmdr. Owen Bartlett relieved Cmdr. George F. Neal, who had commanded the vessel since the declaration of war.  On 14 January, Cummings steamed to Birkenhead, England, for a refit at the Cammell Laird & Co., Ltd., yard. Alterations to the ship included larger depth charge tracks that allowed for the dropping of up to 22 charges, and the addition of two depth charge projectors.  She remained there until 27 January, but returned to the dockyard in mid-February to address damage after the dockyard pilot damaged one of her screws on the corner of a dock.  She received repairs at various facilities until 13 March.

While escorting a British steamship on 13 April 1918, Cummings’ lookouts sighted a floating mine.  The crew opened fire with the Nos. 1 and 2 guns and small arms, destroying it.  Later in the day, the crew spotted an object that resembled a periscope, Cummings dropping a depth charge that had no effect. Eight days later, she dropped six depth charges after sighting an oil slick and continued on to Queenstown.  She dropped another two depth charges on a suspicious slick on 27 April without any results.  On the following day, lookouts spotted a suspicious wake running parallel to the wake of the vessel she was convoying, the British transport Czaritza.  Cummings dropped a pattern of nine depth charges to head off a potential attack.  She continued with her charge conducting only a cursory inspection of the results of the attack.

Cummings continued guarding convoys into the summer, dropping three depth charges on a slick on 13 May 1918 and eight more on 20 May when Davis (Destroyer No. 65) dropped a barrage.  On 5 June the commanding officer spotted through binoculars what he originally thought was sea life near an oil slick at the distance of 14 miles.  The vessel closed on the sighing, and believing it could be a submarine, dropped 23 depth charges without result.

Four days later, on 9 June 1918, the British steamship Vandalia – bound, in ballast, for Montreal, Canada — was being escorted by Cummings when U-96 (Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Jeẞ) torpedoed and sank her. While bringing Vandalia’s survivors on board, Cummings sighted a submarine 1,000 yards distant.  The destroyer shoved off, rang down full speed and dropped a barrage of 17 depth charges from her racks and Y-guns.  She witnessed no results and continued the recovery of survivors.  Two days later, she dropped another 17 charges when a torpedo wake passed her bow 25 yards away.  The destroyer tracked the wake to its source and dropped the charges.  She later noticed two more wakes, one passing under the ship and another crossing the vessel’s bow.

On 1 July 1918, after U-86 (Kapitänleutnant Helmut Patzig) — that only a short time before [27 June] had sunk the British hospital ship Llandovery Castle not only against international law but the Imperial German Navy’s standing orders — torpedoed the troop transport Covington (Id. No. 1409), Cummings arrived to screen the doomed vessel.  While guarding her, Cummings spotted a moving wake close aboard on the port bow.  The commanding officer put the rudder hard left and the ship dropped a barrage of 17 depth charges, but without achieving any apparent results. Over a fortnight later, the crew noticed what seemed to be torpedo wake, this time on the port beam on 16 July.  Cummings followed the wake and dropped a barrage of 20 depth charges with, again, no observed results.

Transferred from Queenstown to Brest, France, Cummings operated thence for the remainder of the World War escorting troops and supplies to French ports.  She used new tactics to attack an oil slick on 10 October 1918, dropping nine depth charges in the vicinity of the slick and employed a “K-tube” – a listening device of dubious value, for even if a submarine was nearby there was no guarantee the operator would detect it — designed to locate noises under water, in an attempt to locate an enemy submarine. Cummings proved unable to locate her adversary and continued guarding her convoy.  She repeated those tactics two days later, dropping one charge on a slick and again unsuccessfully employing a listening device.

Cummings continued to escort allied vessels up to the Armistice of 11 November 1918 and beyond, and participated in escorting the troop transport George Washington (Id. No. 3018), with President Woodrow Wilson embarked, into Brest.  On 16 December 1918, Cummings cleared Brest and arrived at Philadelphia on 2 January 1919 after proceeding via the Azores and Bermuda.  After an overhaul period (2 January-3 February 1919) she joined the fleet at winter maneuvers off Guantanamo, Cuba (6 February-9 April) later returning north to operate in the vicinity of Newport (10 July-28 August). Later, at Melville, R.I., Cummings collided with Rowan (Destroyer No.64) while coming alongside.

Cummings remained in a reserve status at the Philadelphia Navy Yard from 29 August 1919 into March 1921, after which she operated along the East Coast. In August 1921 she damaged one of her screws on an underwater object while entering the Boston Navy Yard.  She again entered the Navy Yard at Philadelphia, in March 1922, and was placed out of commission there on 23 June1922.

The ratification of the 18th Amendment [Prohibition] had spawned a thriving traffic in smuggling alcoholic beverages by 1924. The Coast Guard’s small fleet, charged with stopping the illegal maritime importation of liquor, proved unequal to the task. Consequently, President Calvin Coolidge proposed to increase that fleet with 20 of the Navy’s inactive destroyers, and Congress authorized the necessary funds on 2 April 1924. Cummings was transferred to the Treasury Department for service with the Coast Guard on 7 June 1924.

Those who championed the transfer reasoned that adapting the vessels to law enforcement service would cost less than building new ships. In the end, the rehabilitation of the vessels became a saga in itself because of the exceedingly poor condition of many of the war-weary destroyers. Coast Guardsmen and navy yard workers went to work on Cummings. It took nearly a year to remove the installed anti-submarine warfare equipment and rehabilitate these vessels in order to bring them up to seaworthiness and operational capability. As historian Malcolm F. Willoughby noted, “The winter of 1924-25 was exceptionally severe. Work on destroyers went on day after day in close to zero weather often without the vestige of heat. Some boilers and engines were in fairly good condition, while others were in a deplorable state. New, quick-firing, long-range guns were installed; torpedo tubes and Y guns for depth charges were removed to lighten weight and remove unneeded equipment.” Additionally, the destroyers were by far the largest and most sophisticated vessels ever operated by the Coast Guard; 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. In preparation for operational service, Cummings, in company with McDougal (CG-6) was ordered to proceed to the vicinity of Brown’s Shoal, Del., for the purposes of testing and calibrating her communications equipment and direction finder. Maintaining her name, but re-designated CG-3, Cummings was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 15 May 1925, Lt. Cmdr. Ralph H. Dempwolf, USCG, in command.

Cummings reported to Cmdr. William H. Munter, USCG, Commander, Destroyer Force, New London, Conn., as a unit of Division Four, on 16 May 1925. While capable of well over 25 knots, seemingly an advantage in the interdicting of rum runners, Cummings and the other units in the Destroyer Force were easily outmaneuvered by smaller vessels. As a result, the destroyer typically patrolled her assigned sector and picketed the larger supply ships (“mother ships”) on Rum Row in an attempt to prevent them from off-loading their illicit cargo onto the speedier contact boats that ran the liquor into shore.

During the annual battle practices for the Gunnery Year 1926-1927, the first in which Cummings participated as a Coast Guard destroyer, she rated seventh among sixteen ships in the competition. Rating 8th in the short-range practice, she stood 4th in the long range. Later in the year, while still operating from New London on 6 December 1927 as a unit in Division One, Cummings boarded the auxiliary schooner Funchal, out of New Bedford, Mass. Rigged for scallop fishing, but with that equipment rusted and in disrepair, the destroyer’s commanding officer decided to seize the suspected rum runner. The schooner came into New London under her own power escorted by the destroyer. The next day she was inspected by U.S. Customs officials and released without charges.

Cummings stood out of New London on 4 February 1929 bound for the Gunnery Year 1928-1929 target practices off Charleston, S.C. During this competition her performance improved considerably as she rated 8th among the 24 destroyers competing.  Though she stood only 16th in the short-range practice, hitting only twice in 16 shots, her long-range gunnery was markedly better, rating 4th overall. The destroyer’s achievement contributed to Division One’s standing as the best division in the Destroyer Force. After her annual shoot, Cummings returned to New London on 8 March to resume her routine patrolling of Rum Row. From 4 June to 2 July 1929, Cummings and the other destroyers of Division One, Shaw (CG-22), Davis (CG-21), Ericsson (CG-5), Tucker (CG-23), and Wilkes (CG-25), were pulled out of operational service for inspection and overhaul. After her maintenance availability, she collided with the Canadian schooner Silver Arrow out of Lunenburg, N.S., while on patrol on 6 August 1929. The damage to the destroyer included bent hull and deck plates, destroyed rail stanchions, loosened rivets, and lifelines that were carried away.

With the New Year came the need to again conduct her annual target practices. Cummings steamed from New London, this time bound for St. Petersburg, Fla., on 6 February 1930 and arrived on 12 February. Her performance in the Gunnery Year 1929-1930 shoot, however, fell off from that in the preceding year. Despite improving her short-range performance to 4th, her overall standing was undermined by a poorer long-range practice and her overall standing dropped to 11th out of 19 destroyers. With her gunnery training complete, she returned to New London on 16 March and resumed her routine patrol operations.

Cummings received orders on 20 February 1931 re-assigning her to a new permanent station at Stapleton [Staten Island], N.Y. She was to be replaced at New London by the soon-to-be- commissioned flush-deck destroyer Welborn C. Wood (CG-19). In the meantime, the destroyer departed New London on 9 March 1931 bound for her annual target practice at St. Petersburg. Arriving at Charleston on 11 March, she got underway again on the 16th and arrived at her destination on the 19th. During this competition for the Gunnery Year 1930-1931, Cummings stood seventh among the 13 destroyers conducting battle practices. Interestingly, she rated second in the short-range practice, but only ninth, in the long-range, thus ensuring her median standing. After the competition, she returned to New London on 21 April.

Shortly after her return, Cummings reported for duty with the Division Two at Stapleton on 26 May 1931. One of her first missions, as conveyed in her orders of 19 May, was to proceed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard to embark sailors from the decommissioned Ammen (CG-8) and Jouett (CG-13) along with supplies, and transport them to New York, New London, and Boston, Mass. She stood out of Philadelphia on 22 May. Afterward, she returned to her regular patrol duties.

While on patrol on 16 June 1931, Cummings seized the steam yacht Surf out of New York, south of Block Island, R.I., for violation of the Volstead Act. Taking her under tow, the destroyer brought her back into New York on the 15th, and on the next day turned her prisoners over to the U.S. Customs inspector before getting underway to resume her patrol. During July, Cummings and McDougal docked at the New York Navy Yard to undergo overhaul. Afterward, she returned to Stapleton for assignment to future duty on 26 July.

Cummings’ grueling anti-smuggling interdiction duties, however, eventually wore on her and over time she, along with others of her fellow former Navy destroyers, had become unfit. In a memo dated 19 January 1932, it was noted that future repairs to Cummings “will be considered,” provided the Treasury Department released the requisite funds. On 6 October 1931, she received orders to New London, to be placed in inactive status. The destroyer Shaw (CG-22) was designated as her replacement at the Stapleton CG Base. On 3 December, the destroyer departed Stapleton, arriving at New London that same day. After just over three months of inactivity, she sailed for the New York Navy Yard on 14 March 1932, and arrived the next day. Five weeks later, the destroyer got underway one final time and arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard with a tug providing assistance on 23 April. The Coast Guard decommissioned Cummings at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 30 April 1932 and returned her to the Navy Department that same day.

On 1 July 1933, the Navy dropped the name Cummings, leaving the vessel to be referred to by her identification number, DD-44, only.  On 29 June 1934, the ship was authorized for “disposal by salvage” and on 5 July 1934, DD-44 was stricken from the Navy Register. She was sold to Michael Flynn, Inc., of Brooklyn, on 22 August 1934, and was broken up subsequently.