USS Williams (DD-108) was a in the United States Navy entering service in 1919, and was the second ship to bear the name. Following a brief stint in active service, the ship was laid up for 17 years before being reactivated during World War II. Williams transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II as part of Lend-Lease and was renamed HMCS St. Clair (I65), surviving the war and being scrapped in 1946. Construction and career United States Navy Named in honor of John Foster Williams, the destroyer was laid down on 25 March 1918 at San Francisco, California, by the Union Iron Works plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation. Williams was launched on 4 July 1918, sponsored by Mrs. H. G. Leopold, the wife of Commander H. G. Leopold. The destroyer commissioned on 1 March 1919 at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California. Following shakedown trials, Williams and the destroyer departed Newport, Rhode Island, on 5 June 1919, bound for the Azores. Arriving at Ponta Delgada on 11 June, Williams proceeded to Gibraltar, where she picked up information pertaining to minefields still in operation in the Adriatic Sea, for delivery to the Commander, Naval Forces, Eastern Mediterranean. The destroyer visited Split, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; Gallipoli, in the Dardanelles; and Trieste, Italy, where she operated as part of the US naval forces monitoring the local situation there. After returning to the United States arriving at New York City on 1 August 1919, Williams was assigned to the Pacific Fleet. Given the hull number DD-108 on 17 July 1920, the destroyer operated out of San Diego, California until decommissioned there on 7 June 1922 and placed in reserve. The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 began hostilities in Europe, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately declared the United States' neutrality. To augment the fleet units already engaged in the Neutrality Patrol hurriedly placed off the eastern seaboard and gulf coast of the United States, the navy recommissioned 77 destroyers and light minelayers. Williams was among those recommissioned at San Diego on 6 November 1939. Following a refit at Mare Island, the destroyer operated in the San Diego area until sailing for Panama on 5 February. Transiting the Panama Canal on 16 February, she lay at Balboa, Panama, for a brief time. During her stay there, the destroyer "manned the rail" in honor of