 After McDougal 's June 1914 commissioning , she sailed off the east coast and in the Caribbean . She was one of the U.S. destroyers sent out to rescue survivors from five victims of German submarine U @-@ 53 off the Lightship Nantucket in October 1916 , and carried 6 crewmen from a sunken Dutch cargo ship to Newport , Rhode Island . After the United States entered World War I in April 1917 , McDougal was part of the first U.S. destroyer squadron sent overseas . Patrolling the Irish Sea out of Queenstown , Ireland , McDougal made several unsuccessful attacks on U @-@ boats , and rescued survivors of ships sunk by the German craft . After a collision with a British cargo ship in February 1918 , McDougal was under repair until mid @-@ July , and afterwards , operated out of Brest , France . 
