make it fast, but the effort soon became too dangerous, not worth the lives of the men, and the work had to be abandoned, the boat carrying away completely at 0718. Ultimately, Anderson reached Guantanamo Bay at 0618 on 19 April. Underway again nine hours later, Anderson, again in company with Manley, reached the submarine base at Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, on 21 April. Transiting the Panama Canal on 23 April, Anderson proceeded independently up the west coast of Central America, reaching Acapulco, Mexico, on the 27th. The next morning, following by nine hours the visit of Commander W. M. Dillon, the naval attaché at the United States Embassy in Mexico City, Anderson sent ashore a working party to bring off "naval stores salvaged from the wreck" of (listed in the 1941 Merchant Vessel Register as "abandoned" during the previous year). Underway again four hours later, Anderson rejoined Manley on 30 April, and reached San Diego at 0900 on 1 May 1940. After conducting a brief harbor cruise with 85 Army reservists embarked on 18 May, Anderson got underway to conduct a neutrality patrol off the coast of southern California. During the course of this operation on 20 May, the destroyer sighted a tug five miles (8 km) away at 0945 and altered course to close and investigate. Closer examination revealed Ray P. Clark, towing a barge laden with horses and bales of hay and flying a distress signal. Anderson immediately called away her fire and rescue party and stopped to render assistance, help which turned out to be only giving directions to the tug which had become lost and needed the course to San Nicolas Island. The assistance duly rendered, Anderson continued on her appointed rounds, arriving back at San Diego on the morning of 23 May. The warship commenced the month of June as plane guard for , as that carrier conducted local operations out of North Island; she later planeguarded for from 19 to 21 June, interspersed with type training and gunnery practices out of Pyramid Cove, San Clemente Island. At 0900 on 22 June, as the ship prepared to sail for Hawaiian waters, Commander Allan E. Smith reported on board and broke his pennant in Anderson as Commander, Destroyer Division 3 (DesDiv 3); Anderson subsequently took a departure from San Diego on the morning of 25 June, sailing in company with Enterprise and , ,