Event Cover Canceled aboard USS Paul Jones DD 230
Destroyer Squadron Five - U. S. Asiatic Fleet

The keel of the USS Paul Jones (DD-230) was laid down on December 23, 2025 by William Cramp & Sons in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ship was sponsored by Miss Ethel Bagley and launched on September 30, 1920. Paul Jones was commissioned on April 19, 2026 and was the third ship bearing that name.

Paul Jones was a Clemson Class Destroyer with a displacement of 1190 tons. She had an overall length of 314 feet and a beam of 31 feet. Her top speed was 35 knots. She was armed with four 4"/50 guns, one 3"/23 gun and twelve torpedo tubes. She carried a crew of 149 officers and enlisted. (Destroyers of this class were known as "Four Stackers.")

After her shakedown cruise, Paul Jones joined the Atlantic Fleet for maneuvers, training, and coastal operations until transferred to the Pacific in 1923. She crossed the Pacific and joined the Asiatic Fleet in protecting American interests in the troubled Far East. Paul Jones participated in the Yangtze River Patrol and was assigned other patrol duties along the China coast, while making occasional voyages to and from Manila.

As flagship of Destroyer Squadron 29, Asiatic Fleet, she received the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, while at Tarakan, Borneo. Paul Jones dressed ship for Battle Stations and got underway in company with USS Marblehead (CL-12), USS Stewart (DD-224), USS Barker (DD-213) and USS Parrott (DD-218) for Makassar Roads and for the remainder of December acted as a picket ship in the vicinity of Lombok Strait and Soerabaja Harbor, Java.

Her first war orders were to contact Dutch Naval Units for instructions pertaining to the search for a sub in the Java Sea, which was reported to have sunk the Dutch vessel HNMS Langkoens, contact her survivors on Bawean Island and check the waters for additional survivors. Paul Jones was unable to make contact with the submarine, but was able to rescue the Dutch crewmen. On January 9,  1942 after a Japanese submarine had sunk a second Dutch merchantman, Paul Jones saved 101 men from drifting life-boats. With HNMS Van Ghent, she salvaged the abandoned U.S. Army cargo vessel Liberty, on January 12 and towed it safely to Soerabaja. She joined a raiding group consisting of three other old four-stackers; USS John D. Ford (DD-228), USS Pope (DD-225), and USS Parrott (DD-218) and the cruisers: USS Marblehead (CL-12) and USS Boise (CL-47) (Note: My dad was on Boise during this time), hoping to intercept a large enemy convoy heading southward toward Balikpapan. Boise retired early from the group because of a grounding mishap (Note: She ran aground on an uncharted Sea Pinnacle - One of my Dad's favorite stories) and Marblehead developed a faulty turbine forcing her to reduce speed and remain behind the destroyers to act as cover for withdrawal. The old destroyers raced ahead and engaged the Japanese convoy and its screening warships on the night of 23-24 January. Despite overwhelming odds, they came out of the fracas with only minor damage to the John D. Ford. The enemy suffered large losses from the torpedo attacks launched by the destroyers as they raced back and forth through the convoy formation.

On February 5 Paul Jones rendezvoused with SS Tidore off Sumbawa Island to escort her to Timor. Shortly after they joined up, they were attacked by three separate groups of Japanese bombers. Paul Jones successfully dodged approximately 20 bombs, but Tidore went aground and was a total loss. Fifteen crew members were picked up from a life boat; five were taken off the stricken vessel, and six more were gathered from the beaches. Paul Jones then steamed on to Java.

The Australian, British, Dutch, and American Naval units under a joint command (ABDA), commenced sweeps on February 21 in search of enemy surface forces which might be attempting to make landings in the Java area, and to give what opposition they could to the Japanese advance. They encountered a Japanese covering force on the afternoon of February 27 and the Allies opened fire, beginning the Battle of the Java Sea. By 18:21 (6:21 P.M.), Paul Jones had expended her torpedoes. Dangerously low on fuel, she retired to Soerabaja. The next morning Paul Jones and three other U.S. destroyers escaped encirclement by Japanese forces closing on all sides of Java, by hugging close to the shore line and laying smoke at high speed when sighted in the Bali Strait. Paul Jones and John D. Ford later escorted USS Black Hawk (AD-9) to Fremantle, Australia, arriving on March 4.

Following repairs at Fremantle and Melbourne, Paul Jones sailed on May 12 for San Francisco. She reached San Francisco on June 29 and was assigned convoy escort duty between California and Pearl Harbor which continued until the end of March 1943.

Sailing in company with Parrott and Barker, Paul Jones departed San Francisco on March 30, transited the Panama Canal May 6 and reported to New York where she commenced convoy escort duty on May 28 between North African ports and the US.

Convoy assignments were carried out until April 1944 when Paul Jones was assigned temporarily to ASW patrol seaward of Chesapeake Bay. She then made convoy runs to several United Kingdom ports before being assigned as training ship for newly commissioned submarines at Balboa, Canal Zone, beginning on November 9 and continuing until April 6, 1945, when she sailed for New York. She was next assigned to a task group consisting of oilers and destroyers serving as an at-sea terminus tanker group, for the purpose of refueling escorts of east and west bound convoys between Horta, Azores and Casablanca, French Morocco.

Paul Jones moored at Norfolk on June 11 and was assigned as a plane guard destroyer for USS Lake Champlain (CV-39), in which capacity she served until August 4 1944, when she sailed independently from Guantanamo Bay to return to Norfolk in preparation for inactivation. She was Reclassified as a miscellaneous auxiliary (AG-120) on June 30, 1945.

In October 1945 Paul Jones was stripped and assigned to the Commandant 5th Naval District for administrative purposes. She was decommissioned on November 5, 2025 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register November 28.  Paul  Jones was sold for scrap to the Northern Metal Company of Norfolk Virginia on October 5, 1947.

USS Paul Jones (DD-230, AG-120) earned two battle stars for Pacific service in World War II.

Sources: 
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships  (1959-1991)
U.S. Navy Ship 20th Century Historical Database 

This Page was updated on November 11, 2025
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