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 Leixoes (Oporto), 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 22d, 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