USS Aylwin (DD-355) was a Farragut-class destroyer, and the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant John Cushing Aylwin (1778–1812).
Construction and commissioning Aylwin was laid down on 23 September 1933 by the Philadelphia Navy Yard, launched on 10 July 1934, sponsored by Miss Elizabeth M. Farley, the 11-year-old daughter of Postmaster General James Farley, and commissioned on 1 March 1935.
1935–1941
1935
Following builders' trials late in March, and fitting out, the destroyer shifted to the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island, to load eight torpedo warheads. At the end of further trials, she returned to Philadelphia on 8 May to prepare for shakedown.
On 22 May, Aylwin sailed for a cruise that took her to European countries. She stopped at Port Leixões (Porto), Portugal, on 1 June and at Santander, Spain, on the 5th, before shifting to Cherbourg, France, on the 10th. Five days later, the Honorable Jesse I. Straus, the United States Ambassador to France, inspected the new destroyer.
The warship next visited Bremen, Germany from 19 to 24 June, before sailing for Gothenburg, Sweden, and a five-day visit. Then, after getting underway for Belgium on the 29th, she reached Brussels late on 2 July and there received her only royal visit when, on the morning of the 8th, King Leopold III and Queen Astrid came on board for an hour's inspection.
The ship visited Dover, England, before heading homeward on 15 July. She reached Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the 22nd, received post-shakedown repairs, and conducted further trials that lasted until 1 October, when she put to sea to join the Fleet. She fell in with her sister ship the next day, and the two ships reached Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on the 5th, where Aylwin unloaded a cargo of light freight. After transiting the Panama Canal on 7 October, she paused briefly at Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, before sailing on the 10th for a plane-guard station off Champerico, Guatemala, to provide a directional bearing along the projected track of the experimental flying boat XP3Y-1, the prototype of the PBY Catalina.
Aylwin reached her assigned position on 13 October and, the next morning, began laying smoke to serve as marker for the plane. The destroyer's lookouts sighted the plane at 12:38, and it passed directly overhead seven minutes later. Ultimately, the XP3Y-1 reached San Francisco Bay on 15 October, having set a new international distance record for seaplane flights—3,281.402 statute miles (5,280.905 km).
The destroyer rejoined Hull the next day; and the two ships steamed into San Diego, California harbor on the 19th. After a visit to Stockton, California, from 26 to 29 October, Aylwin began her peacetime duty with the Fleet, operating off the coast of southern California in flotilla tactics, torpedo attacks, short range battle practices, and sound training runs with the submarines and .
1936
On 10 February 1936, Aylwin departed San Diego and entered the Mare Island Navy Yard on the following day for repairs and alterations. She ran her post-repair trials on 3 April.
Following brief operations off Pyramid Cove, San Clemente Island, Aylwin sailed for the Canal Zone on 27 April to participate in Fleet Problem XVII, a five-phased evolution. The problem pitted the Battle Force against a submarine-augmented Scouting Force.
As the opposing forces engaged off the west coast of Central America near the Panama Canal, Aylwin conducted simulated gun attacks on "enemy" destroyers and torpedo attacks on the "enemy" battle line. She anchored off Balboa on 9 May, refueled the following day, and resumed her participation in the fleet problem on the 16th as part of the "Green" fleet.
After the exercises, Aylwin sailed to Peru and arrived at Callao on the morning of 28 May. That day, Rear Admiral Sinclair Gannon, Commander, Destroyers, Scouting Force, broke his flag in Aylwin. Winding up her Peruvian visit on 2 June, she got underway for California, but paused in Panama Bay from 6 to 8 June before continuing on to San Diego. Aylwin reached her home port on the morning of 16 June and moored alongside . That afternoon, Rear Admiral Gannon transferred his flag to the destroyer tender.
On 6 July, Aylwin got underway for the Pacific Northwest and reached Port Angeles, Washington, on the 9th. She sailed thence via the inland passage to Alaska and arrived at Cordova on the 13th. Following a subsequent visit to Kodiak, a return call at Port Angeles, and tender upkeep there alongside Dobbin, the destroyer conducted sound tracking exercises at Admiralty Bay, Port Townsend, Washington. She visited Portland, Oregon, from 5 to 10 August before heading home where she arrived on the 13th.
A week later, she got underway for tactical exercises in company with and ; but they soon commenced looking for the overdue San Diego–based tuna boat SS San Juaquin, last reported in their vicinity. The Coast Guard cutter Tahoe joined the search on 21 August, and the cutter Aurora began the next day. On the 23d, Aylwin and the other ships, sailing in a scouting line, searched for the overdue full-rigged ship Pacific Queen. Although they did not find either vessel, it seems that neither was lost, since both appeared on merchant vessel registers for some years thereafter. In fact, the latter—bearing her original name, Balclutha—serves as a floating museum berthed in San Francisco, California.
Aylwin operated in the southern California area until sailing on 16 April 1937 for the Hawaiian Islands to participate in Fleet Problem XVIII. Forming up with the "Hilo Detachment" on the 21st, Aylwin conducted a mock bombardment of Hilo, Hawaii before deploying to screen and as they covered a simulated landing. Putting into Pearl Harbor on 25 April, Aylwin got underway on 4 May as part of the "White" Force.
Rated as "damaged" in an initial phase of the action on 8 May, Aylwin shaped course to rendezvous with "friendly" units that morning and drove off two "strafing" attacks by "Black" planes en route. She sighted what appeared to be the "White" battle line at 06:40 and altered course to join, but discovered that the ships were, in fact, counted as "out of action."
Thus now virtually "alone", Aylwin came about and headed for Lahaina, Hawaii. The beleaguered ship found no solace en route, however, for she spotted three fast minelayers closing from six miles away, and after identifying them as "enemy", went to general quarters at 07:30, "opening fire" three minutes later. However, the umpires quickly declared her hors de combat so she joined her "out of action" consorts soon thereafter.
Aylwin returned to San Diego on 28 May 1937 and, after two weeks of upkeep alongside , resumed her training schedule. During the last days of June, she operated in company with as that ship conducted battle practice off Santa Barbara Island in company with the radio-controlled, high-speed target ship .
1938
For the rest of 1937 and the winter months of early 1938, Aylwin maintained what had become standard routine, alternating periods in port for upkeep with time training at sea in the southern California operating area. From 6 to 9 January 1938, she participated in the search for a lost patrol plane from Patrol Squadron 7 (VP-7). After firing antiaircraft practices in early February, the ship proceeded to the Destroyer Base, San Diego, for her yearly hull inspection in the floating drydock USS ARD-1 and then proceeded to the Mare Island Navy Yard for a brief overhaul.
Following those repairs, Aylwin arrived at San Diego on the 6th, just in time to participate in Fleet Problem XIX. The "Black" Fleet put to sea from San Diego at 03:25 on 15 March. As part of the "White" Fleet, Aylwin got underway at 1640 and soon joined the remainder of Destroyer Flotilla 1 and the aircraft carrier .
Searching for the enemy "main body" on the 17th, she fell in with , , and on the following morning. That afternoon, the cruisers made contact, attacked, and retired under cover of a smoke screen. Aylwin regained sight of the "enemy" and took up a position a safe distance astern to trail them through the 19th.
After fueling from on the 20th, the destroyer conducted exercises in subsequent phases of Fleet Problem XIX until supporting a mock landing at Lahaina; at the outset, she lay-to between the islands of Molokai, Lanai, and Maui before standing in toward the "beachhead" to support the landing of troops. She conducted a brief minesweeping drill before refueling from and then anchoring at Lahaina Roads for a brief respite.
From 4 to 8 April, Aylwin again was underway participating in further exercises before putting into Pearl Harbor. When the fleet sortied on the morning of the 18th, she ranged ahead of the departing battleships alert for possible "submarine" activity. Ultimately, Aylwin participated in the closing phases of Fleet Problem XIX, which had been conducted in three separate phases, each a small fleet problem in itself. As in Fleet Problem XVII, the exercises also tested the ability of the fleet to seize and hold advanced bases, indicating the Navy's Pacific-minded planning.
The destroyer returned to San Diego on 28 April and, on 9 May, resumed her coastwise training schedule. She underwent brief upkeep alongside Whitney before getting underway on 21 June for the Pacific Northwest and cruising along the coast through July, touching at such places as Port Angeles, Washington; Ketchikan, Territory of Alaska; Humpback Bay, Wrangell Narrows, Taku Inlet, Yakutat Bay, Sitka, Seattle; and finally, Portland, Oregon. She returned via San Francisco to San Diego in mid-August, underwent tender upkeep alongside Whitney, and conducted training off the southern California coast before getting underway on 26 September for Hawaii.
Reaching Pearl Harbor on 2 October, Aylwin underwent repairs and alterations there through November. She arrived back at San Diego on 12 December and conducted training exercises off the South Coronados Island of Mexico before ending the year 1938 berthed in a destroyer nest in San Diego harbor.
1939
Four days into 1939, Aylwin got underway for Panama and reached Balboa on 13 January. After transiting the Panama Canal the next day, she operated out of Gonaïves, Haiti; Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; and, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, before getting underway on the 13th for her initial station during Fleet Problem XX.
These exercises took place in the Caribbean and arrayed the Battle Force against the Scouting Force.
After fueling from on 17 February, Aylwin operated with and which acted as a raiding force during one phase of the problem. Ultimately, the "battle" reached its conclusion, the fleet battle. The forces then all retired to Culebra Bay, Puerto Rico, where President Franklin D. Roosevelt reviewed them from the deck of Houston on the last day of February.
After visiting Cienfuegos and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Aylwin operated briefly out of Gonaïves before returning to Guantanamo on 31 March. She got underway on 8 April for Yorktown, Virginia, and, en route north, acted as plane guard for Lexington. Aylwin reached Yorktown on 12 April, but the Fleet's visit to that area was soon cut short by orders to return to the Pacific.
Underway at 04:04 on 20 April, Aylwin took station with the rest of her division around the carriers. She planeguarded for en route to Panama; transited the Canal on 29 April; and, after tarrying briefly at Balboa, got underway for San Diego on 2 May. Reaching her home port on the 12th, the destroyer operated off southern California before entering the Mare Island Navy Yard on 18 June for repairs and alterations lasting until 8 October. She got underway on the morning of 11 October, bound once more for Hawaii.
The Navy formed a "Hawaiian Detachment" under Vice Admiral Adolphus Andrews and based it at Pearl Harbor—a step foreshadowing the basing of the entire Fleet there the following spring.