Skip to main content
Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Tags
Related Content
Topic
Document Type
  • Themed Collection
Wars & Conflicts
File Formats
  • Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Location of Archival Materials
  • NHHC

USS Lawrence (DD-250)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS Lawrence (DD-250)

USS Lawrence (DD-250), a 1190-ton Clemson class destroyer built at Camden, New Jersey, was laid down 14 August 1919 by New York Shipbuilding Corp.; launched 10 July 1920; sponsored by Miss Ruth Lawrence; and commissioned 18 April 1921, Lt. Comdr. John H. Wellbrock in command.

After shakedown, USS Lawrence (DD-250) was assigned to the Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet and deployed to the Mediterranean Sea in June 1922, arriving off Constantinople on 4 July. For the next year, the USS Lawrence (DD-250) cruised in the eastern Mediterranean and in the Black Sea as U.S., British, French and other Allied forces rendered aid to refugees and humanitarian crises caused by the Russian Civil War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

From late 1923 until early 1931 USS Lawrence (DD-250) served with the Scouting Fleet in the Atlantic and Caribbean, with occasional transits through the Panama Canal to take part in exercises in the Pacific. She also made several Naval Reserve training cruises and was employed off Central America in February and March during unrest in Nicaraguan Civil War in 1927. Returned to Philadelphia later that year, USS Lawrence (DD-250) decommissioned there on 6 January 1931. Recommissioned 13 June 1932, Lt. Comdr. Thomas F. Downey in command, USS Lawrence (DD-250) sailed to San Diego, where she reported for duty on 8 September. She operated there for almost six years, conducting fleet exercises and tactical training drills until she again went out of commission on 13 September 1938.

The outbreak of World War II in Europe brought her back into the active fleet on 26 September 1939. The rest of that year, and nearly all of 1940, saw USS Lawrence (DD-250) operating in the Caribbean and Atlantic on patrol and anti-submarine warfare training service. Returning to the Pacific on 27 December 1940 and later assigned to the Sound School at San Diego, USS Lawrence (DD-250) began convoy escort work soon after the United States entered the Second World War on 7 December 1941. Sent to the East Coast in late August 1945, USS Lawrence (DD-250) was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 24 October 1945 and sold to Boston Metal Co., Baltimore, Md., for scrapping on 1 October 1946.

For a complete history of USS Lawrence (DD-250) please see its DANFS page.