On 6 December, "Jacob Jones" was steaming independently from Brest, France, for Queenstown, when she was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine with the loss of 66 officers and men, becoming the first United States destroyer to ever be sunk by enemy action, and the only destroyer lost to the enemy by the US Navy in World War I. "Jacob Jones" sank in eight minutes without issuing a distress call; the German submarine commander, "Kapitänleutnant" Hans Rose, after rescuing two badly injured "Jacob Jones" crewmen, radioed the American base at Queenstown with the coordinates for the survivors before leaving the area.