Return to Naval Historical
Center home page.
Return to Online
Library listing
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Jacob Jones (Destroyer # 61), 1916-1917
USS Jacob Jones, a 1150-ton Tucker class destroyer
built at Camden, New Jersey, was commissioned in February 1916.
She served along the East Coast during the next year and conducted
war patrols in the same area for a month after the United States'
April 1917 entry into the First World War. In May 1917, Jacob
Jones crossed the Atlantic to begin anti-submarine patrols
and convoy escort work out of Queenstown, Ireland. She rescued
survivors of several torpedoed ships during the next several months.
On 6 December 1917, while en route from Brest, France, to Queenstown,
USS Jacob Jones was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine
U-53. Her survivors were rescued by British ships after
the German submarine's Commanding Officer, the daring and very
successful Hans Rose, reported their location by radio.
USS Jacob Jones was named in honor of Commodore
Jacob Jones, USN, (1768-1850), a naval hero of the War of
1812.
This page features all the views we have related to USS
Jacob Jones (Destroyer # 61).
For pictures of an officer who lost his life in the sinking
of USS Jacob Jones, see:
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Stanton
F. Kalk (1894-1917).
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 52123
USS Jacob Jones (Destroyer # 61)
Underway in 1916, soon after she was completed.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 445 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 46396
USS Melville (Destroyer Tender # 2)
Tending U.S. Navy destroyers at Queenstown, Ireland, 1917.
The destroyers present include (from left to right):
USS Jacob Jones (Destroyer # 61);
USS Ericsson (Destroyer # 56);
USS Wadsworth (Destroyer # 60);
and an unidentified ship.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 510 pixels |
 |
Photo #: Smithsonian 72-4509-A
USS Jacob Jones (Destroyer # 61)
Sinking off the Scilly Islands, England, on 6 December 1917,
after she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-53.
Photographed by Seaman William G. Ellis.
Smithsonian Institution Photograph.
Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 470 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 86495
Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Stanton F. Kalk, USN
Painting by F. Luis Mora, depicting Lt(JG) Kalk assisting survivors
of USS Jacob Jones (Destroyer # 61) after she was sunk
by the German submarine U-53 off the Scilly Isles on 6
December 1917.
A plaque accompanying this painting read: "The Jacob
Jones was sunk by an enemy torpedo between Brest and Queenstown.
Lieutenant (jg) S.F. Kalk rendered conspicuous and gallant services
after the ship sank by helping men from one raft to another so
as to equalize the weight on the rafts. He died of exposure and
exhaustion in order to save others. Lieutenant (jg) Kalk was
awarded the Distinguished Service Medal posthumously."
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 505 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 92064
USS Jacob Jones (Destroyer # 61)
Ship's survivors following their rescue. Jacob Jones was
sunk off the Scilly Isles by the German submarine U-53,
on 6 December 1917.
Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Retired), 1981.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 475 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 94774-KN (Color)
"Uncle Sam's Ships"
Cover for sheet music composed and written by Chief Yeoman Daisy
May Pratt Erd, USNRF, during World War I. It features the names
of 109 U.S. Navy ships, from battleships to tugs and patrol boats.
Donation of Miss G.H. Erd, 1973.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 136KB; 585 x 765 pixels |
 |
Return to Naval
Historical Center home page.
Page made 20 September 2002
New image added 29 September 2002