early days of the crisis, as well as sending important reports to Washington. On 11 February, she moved to Shanghai and, on 23 February, to Swatow, where she remained until 2 April 1932. On 18 April, Simpson departed Manila with her squadron to return to the United States. After overhaul at Mare Island, Simpson joined Destroyers, Battle Force, at San Diego, California on 28 September 1932 and conducted fleet exercises and training along the U.S. West Coast during the next several years. During night exercises in a fleet problem off Guantanamo Bay, Simpson collided with , on 7 May 1934, and she underwent repairs at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and summer training at Newport before returning to San Diego on 10 November. She then resumed training with the Pacific Fleet and participated in fleet maneuvers ("problems") annually in 1936, 1937, and 1938. On 6 March 1939, Simpson transited the Panama Canal to the Atlantic, and between 5 June and 30 August 1939, she carried out three training cruises for Naval Academy midshipmen. She then commenced training cruises for Naval Reservists, but at the outbreak of war in Europe, she was assigned Neutrality Patrol duty and sailed for the Caribbean on 6 September. There she carried out patrols and participated in exercises, including a fleet landing exercise at Culebra from 14 February to 10 March 1940. After one training cruise for midshipmen and one for reservists during the summer, she resumed Neutrality Patrol duties in the Caribbean in October. World War II Simpson was part of a support force formed on 18 March 1941, after the signature of the Lend-Lease Act, to protect convoys between America and Britain in the North Atlantic. After several months of coastal escort and patrol duties, she escorted two convoys from NS Argentia, Newfoundland, to a rendezvous with British escorts off Greenland between 30 June and 3 September 1941. On 24 September, off Iceland, she joined the first westbound convoy to be escorted by American warships and delivered it safely to Argentia on 4 October. After United States entry into the war in December, her convoy trips were extended to the British Isles, and she remained on transatlantic convoy duty until 28 April 1942, when she entered the Boston Navy Yard for overhaul. For nearly a year after leaving the yard in May 1942, Simpson escorted convoys up and down the United States East Coast. She