 After Ericsson 's May 1916 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 81 passengers from a sunken British ocean liner to Newport , Rhode Island . After the United States entered World War I in April 1917 , Ericsson was part of the first U.S. destroyer squadron sent overseas . Patrolling the Irish Sea out of Queenstown , Ireland , Ericsson made several unsuccessful attacks on U @-@ boats , and rescued survivors of several ships sunk by the German craft . 
