 On 6 December , Jacob Jones was steaming independently from Brest , France , for Queenstown , when she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U @-@ 53 with the loss of 66 officers and men , becoming the first United States destroyer to ever be sunk by enemy action , and the only destroyer lost to the enemy by the US Navy in World War I. Jacob Jones sank in eight minutes without issuing a distress call ; the German submarine commander , Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose , after rescuing two badly injured Jacob Jones crewmen , radioed the American base at Queenstown with the coordinates for the survivors before leaving the area . 
