DD-297


Fuller

(DD-297: dp. 1,190, 1. 314'5" b. 31'8", dr. 9'4"s. 35 k.; cpl. 95, a. 4 4", 12 21" tt., 6 dcp., 2 dct.,cl. Clemson)

The first Fuller (DD 297) was launched 5 December 1918 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., San Francisco Calif., sponsored by Miss Gladys Sullivan, and commissioned 28 February 1920, Lieutenant Commander R. E. Rogers in command.

After a brief cruise to the Hawaiian Islands Fuller arrived at her home port, San Diego, 28 April 1920 and at once took up the schedule of training which took the Pacific destroyers along the west coast from California to Oregon. In February and March 1923, she joined in Battle Fleet maneuvers in the Panama Canal Zone, and returned to experimental torpedo firing and antiaircraft firing practice off San Diego. In July 1923, with her division, she sailed north for maneuvers and repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. While making their homeward-bound passage from San Francisco to San Diego on the night of 8 September, the division went on the rocks at Point Honda when position calculations erred in the foggy darkness. Fuller, last in the column, was abandoned, all of her crew reaching safety, and later broke in two and sank. She was decommissioned 26 October 1923.