In August 2022, we posted that British divers had located the wreck of the USS Jacob Jones in over 100 meters of water, 40 miles off the Isles of Scilly. The ship, a Tucker Class destroyer, was sunk during World War I by a German U-boat on December 6, 1917. USS Jacob Jones was the first US destroyer ever to be lost to enemy action and went down in 8 minutes. 64 of her crew of 110 were lost in the attack.
Now, the ship’s bell of the USS Jacob Jones has been recovered by the Salvage and Marine Operations (SALMO) unit, a special salvage unit with the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense at the request of the US Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).
The command asked for assistance from the ministry’s SALMO unit “due to the risk of unauthorized and illegal salvaging,” retired Rear Adm. Sam Cox said in a statement. The shipwreck itself was first discovered off the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern coast of England, by the Darkstar technical dive team in August 2022.
The UK unit used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to survey the site for long-term preservation and protection since the wreck’s discovery.
The NHHC notes that the UK MOD’s SALMO team not only collected ROV video data and recovered the ship’s bell, but also placed a wreath and American flag on the wreck in tribute to the Sailors lost 107 years ago. After its recovery, the bell was placed into the temporary custody of Wessex Archaeology, a private firm contracted by NHHC. Later this year, after a ceremonial handover, the bell will be sent to the NHHC’s Underwater Archaeology Branch for conservation treatment and eventual display at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy.
Jacob Jones was in the second division of destroyers sent to Europe in May 1917, the month after the United States entered the war. The destroyers were assigned convoy escort duties to protect the Western Approaches to the United Kingdom and France from U-boat attacks that threatened the movement of food, weapons, and troops to the allies on the continent.
USS Jacob Jones
Thanks to David Rye for contributing to this post.
The Jacob Jones had completed delivery of a convoy to Brest. Its Captain Lieutenant Commander David W. Bagley chose imprudently to perform artillery practice alone in the war zone on its way back to Queenstown. The sound of its guns firing alerted Hans Rose to its presence and precipitated his attack. Having been told by the two men that he’d rescued (Albert C. DeMello, Seaman 2nd class, and second class petty officer John Francis Murphy) that the Jacob Jones had not been able to send off its location after being attacked, Hans Rose sent his absolutely unprecedented, uncoded radio message to the American naval base at Land’s End: “UZAG on Land’s End. USS Jacob Jones torpedoed 4925 9622 at 8 p.m. Survivors on board three rafts still at large.” Even after the war, the British Admiralty refused to acknowledge that Rose had radioed the Jacob Jones location. The Americans however acknowledged it was sent, and this precipitated the rescue. After the war US Admiral William Sowden Sims, supreme commander of all United States naval forces operating in Europe, wrote “Rose is one of the few German U- boat commanders with whom Allied naval officers would be willing today to shake hands. I have heard naval officers say that they would like to meet him after the war.”
A detailed first person account of the U53’s attack on the Jacob Jones makes up the entire first chapter of the biography Der Kapitän – U-boat Ace Hans Rose, available on Amazon.
My grandfather, Frederich Joch was the artillery officer aboard U52; sister U-boat to Rose’s U53. Between missions, the two officers shared cabins on the mothership Sophia when back at base on the German fortress island of Heligoland. This connection caused Rose’s youngest son, Christopher Rose to open the family archives to us so that we could write the biography of this extraordinarily chivalrous German naval officer.
Fascinating. Thanks.
I am in possession of the USS Porter 1915 Destroyer bell. Purchased some years ago in San Diego. One of many bells in our
50+ years of collecting. A beautiful thing.
Ron Johnston, we used to Christen crewmember’s babies in our Ship’s Bell. USS Koelsch DE / FF1049