Destroyer No. 139 Ward was a Flush Deck Type of the Fifth Group
built. She was laid down on 15 May 1918 and completed on 24 July
of the same year. Many of these four-funnelled, World War I
vessels were converted for use as minelayers, seaplane tenders
and minesweepers. Those still operating as destroyers in World
War II had been re-armed with six 3-inch guns, two anti-aircraft
machine guns and six torpedo tubes. The Reuben James, the first
American ship to be lost in the North Atlantic in World War II,
was a vessel of the same class. She was torpedoed on 31 October
1941 while escorting HX 156, a British convoy. On December 7,
1941 Ward was on patrol channel entrance outside Pearl Harbor.
At 0357 the minesweeper Condor signalled that she had observed
what could possibly have been a periscope. At 0630 the captain
of the supply ship Antares informed Ward of sighting a strange
object in the water, which he suspected was a submarine. Officer
of the deck Lieutenant Oscar W. Groepner called his captain,
Lieutenant W