USS Roper (DD-147) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy, later converted to a high-speed transport and redesignated APD-20. She was named for Lieutenant Commander Jesse M. Roper, commanding officer of , who died in 1901 while attempting to rescue a member of his crew. As of 2016, no other ships in the United States Navy have borne this name. Construction Ropers keel was laid down on 19 March 1918 by William Cramp & Sons, of Philadelphia. She was launched on 17 August 1918 sponsored by Mrs. Jesse M. Roper, widow of Lieutenant Commander Roper, and commissioned on 15 February 1919. Roper was the first United States Navy warship to sink a German submarine during World War II. Service history Interwar period Following shakedown off the New England coast, Roper sailed east in mid-June 1919 and, after stops at Ponta Delgada, Gibraltar, and Malta, anchored in the Bosporus on 5 July. For the next month she supported Peace Commission and Relief Committee work in the Black Sea area, carrying mail and passengers to and from Constantinople, Novorossisk, Batum, Samsun, and Trebizond. On 20 August the destroyer returned to the United States, at New York City, only to sail again six days later. At the end of the month she transited the Panama Canal and moved north to San Diego. Roper remained on the West Coast until July 1921. On 23 July, she departed San Francisco, for duty on the Asiatic Station. Arriving at Cavite, Philippine Islands, on 24 August, she remained in the Philippines into December. She then moved into Chinese waters and, into the summer, operated primarily from Hong Kong and Chefoo. On 25 August 1922, she headed back to California. Routed via Nagasaki, Midway, and Pearl Harbor she arrived at San Francisco on 13 October. Two days later she shifted to San Pedro, Los Angeles, thence proceeded to San Diego, where she was decommissioned on 14 December 1922 and berthed with the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Recommissioned on 18 March 1930, Roper resumed operations in the Pacific. Operating primarily in the southern California area, in active and rotating reserve squadrons, for the next seven years, she deployed to Panama, to Hawaii and to the Caribbean for fleet problems and maneuvers in 1931, 1933, 1935, and 1936. During 1933, Lieutenant, junior grade Robert A. Heinlein, who would later gain fame as a science fiction author, transferred aboard Roper.