Divers Recover Bell From USS Jacob Jones Sunk By German U-Boat in World War I

A crew of British military divers recovered a bell belonging to the USS Jacob Jones (DD-61), the first American destroyer sunk by a German U-boat in World War I, in January, U.S. Navy authorities said.

The divers, from the UK Ministry of Defence’s Salvage and Marine Operations (SALMO) unit, surveyed the destroyer’s wreck and recovered the bell Jan. 22, the US Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) said in a Feb. 11 statement. The NHHC requested the recovery as part of its effort to preserve and protect the wreck site since technical divers discovered it off the Isles of Scilly, England, in Aug. 2022, the statement read. The US Embassy in London provided “pivotal support.”

Jacob Jones became the first US Navy destroyer lost to enemy action when the German submarine U-53 torpedoed it as it escorted “a troop and supply convoy from southern Ireland to Brittany,” France, according to the statement. It sank eight minutes later on Dec. 6, 1917. American military personnel launched a rescue effort at the behest of the U-boat commander who radioed “the approximate location of survivors to the nearest” US military base. However, “the ship’s officer-of-the-deck that directed the rescue effort died of exposure and was posthumously awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal,” the statement added.

The SALMO divers “placed a wreath and an American flag on the shipwreck in tribute of the Sailors” who died in the attack. (RELATED: Shipwreck Hunters Discover Fully Intact Remains Of Doomed 156-Year-Old Schooner)

A British dive team recovered the bell from the first U.S. destroyer sunk in World War I and will return it to Washington. https://t.co/VOgT8pvGqG

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 20, 2024

“The wreck of the ship is a hallowed war grave and is the last resting place for many of the 64 men who were lost in the sinking. U.S. Navy policy is to leave such wrecks undisturbed. However, due to risk of unauthorized and illegal salvaging of the ship’s bell, NHHC requested Ministry of Defence assistance,” NHHC Director Sam J. Cox, U.S. Navy rear admiral (retired), director of NHHC, said, according to the statement. “The U.S. Navy is grateful to the SALMO team for recovering the bell, which will serve as a memorial to sailors who made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of both the United States and the United Kingdom.”

The NHHC will receive the bell in a ceremony further in the year and will send it “to the NHHC’s Underwater Archaeology Branch for conservation treatment,” after which the bell will go on “display at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy,” according to the statement. Meanwhile, Wessex Archaeology, a UK-based private organization, has the bell on NHHC’s behalf.