crew were most of the way through getting their 503 passengers and themselves ashore safely. However, a few of Hoovers crew had plundered the liner's liquor store, got drunk, and once ashore started pursuing some of the women passengers. Commander Haight, Ensign John H. Parker and 15 men boarded Hoover to protect valuables. Meanwhile, landing parties from both Alden and Barker went ashore to restore order. On the forenoon watch on 14 December due to the tension after the sinking of in the Yangtze River by Japanese aircraft on 12 December, Alden broke out and stowed in her ready racks 47 rounds of service ammunition. However, Ashigara and her escort continued to stand by and assist in a professional manner. Hoovers survivors were rescued by American Mail Line's SS President McKinley on 14 December and Dollar Lines' SS President Pierce on 15 December. Ashigara deployed flat-bottomed boats that brought survivors from the shore out to meet McKinleys boats and a motor launch, which then ferried them out to the liner. Anchoring west of Kasho-to, Alden remained to guard President Hoovers wreck until 23 December 1937, when Japanese authorities relieved her. 1938–41 The next summer, Alden, in company with her sister ships and , visited Haiphong, French Indochina, from 21 to 28 June 1938 before continuing up to Chefoo. With the start of World War II in September 1939, concern over the Japanese taking advantage of the preoccupation of the British and French with European affairs to extend her own sphere of influence prompted increased American vigilance to protect the lives and property of Americans in the Far East. To this end, some of the ships of the Asiatic Fleet's destroyers were rotated to duty with units such as the South China Patrol. Alden operated with this command between September and November 1939, before she returned to the Philippines. The international climate making it dangerous to keep the Asiatic Fleet deployed to Chinese waters, Admiral Thomas C. Hart (who had relieved Admiral Yarnell as CINCAF in July 1939) withdrew it, with the exception of the river gunboats on the Yangtze and South China Patrols, to the Philippines in late 1940. There, in the waters of that archipelago, the fleet prepared for war. Alden took part in this training, interspersing it with periods of upkeep at Cavite, into the tense autumn of 1941. Due to the continued "tense and unpredictable" situation in