WWI U53 Torpedo Gyroscope German U-Boat U-53 USS Jacob Jones Kaiserliche Marine Imperial Navy Unterseeboot SANK FIRST US DESTROYER EVER

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Seller: vela_incident ✉️ (537) 0%, Location: Paris, Tennessee, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 131609442690 WWI U53 Torpedo Gyroscope German U-Boat U-53 USS Jacob Jones Kaiserliche Marine .

You are bidding on a WWI German U-Boat brass torpedo guidance gyroscope with letter of provenance from the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, England. This gyroscope was taken from a torpedo off of the German Submarine U-53. There is a letter of authentication pictured at the end of this listing. The German U-Boat Submarine U-53 was responsible for the sinking of the USS Jacob Jones.

The torpedo that sank the USS Jacob Jones was the longest successful submarine warshot (23 years before radar) during WWI which was fired from the German submarine SM U-53 . The torpedo was shot from 1-1/2 nautical miles away and sank the first American destroyer lost during WWI, the USS Jacob Jones on 6 December 1917. This gyroscope would have been aboard when these events occurred, and it was a gyroscope identical to this that made the longest shot possible, and the sinking of the Jacob Jones possible........this gyroscope was the device the guided the torpedo to its target! Fantastic piece of engineering, and US-German military history!! 

The USS Jacob Jones was steaming independently from Brest, France for Queenstown, Ireland when she was torpedoed and suffered the loss of 66 officers and men, becoming the first ever United States destroyer sunk by enemy action . The USS Jacob Jones sank in eight minutes without issuing a distress call. German submarine commander, Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose, after taking two badly injured USS Jacob Jones crewmen aboard his submarine, radioed the American base at Queenstown with the coordinates for the survivors.

  • This gyroscope and a torpedo calculator originally came from a collection owned by the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Hampshire, England-see documentation at the end of the pictures.
  • This gyroscope (and torpedo calculator) was purchased in 2007 from Gorringes Auction Galleries, in East Sussex, England through an "ebay live auction". The gyroscope is the only item included in this auction. It truly belongs in a museum!
  • The gyroscope has an inscription that reads: "Gyroscope taken from torpedo of German submarine U53 presented to P. Colville-Smith, Esqe. by Lawrence Levy, February 1920"

Historical significance of this one-of-a-kind piece of WWI militaria

Construction and Commissioning of the U-53 German Submarine: SM U-53 was ordered from Germaniawerft, Kiel in 1914 and launched in 1916. She was commissioned under her first commander Hans Rose in 1916. ("SM" stands for "Seiner Majestät" (English: His Majesty's) and combined with the U for Unterseeboot would be translated as His Majesty's Submarine.)

Service with the Kaiserliche Marine: Rose became the 5th ranked German submarine ace of World War I sinking USS Jacob Jones and 79 merchant ships for a total of 213,987 gross register tons (GRT). Rose's first patrol with U-53 was to Newport, Rhode Island. His mission had been to sink any British warships in position to ambush the merchant submarine Bremen; but he heard a radio broadcast on 28 September 1916 indicating Bremen had been sunk. U-53 entered Newport harbor on the morning of 7 October 1916. Rose paid courtesy visits to Rear Admiral Austin M. Knight, Commandant of the United States Second Naval District, and Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves aboard the cruiser USS Birmingham; and then received courtesy visits from both admirals aboard U-53. Admiral Gleaves brought his wife and daughter to visit U-53. It took the neutral American government about two hours to decide how to handle this surprise visit. When the harbor master started talking about quarantine regulations, Rose returned to sea to avoid being interned.

The crew of U-53 in America: U-53 commenced military operations the next morning two miles off the Lightship Nantucket. The American steamer Kansan was stopped by a shot across the bow at 0535, and then released when examination of her papers revealed no contraband cargo. A large passenger liner was allowed to pass at 0600 because Rose felt unable to provide for the safety of a large number of passengers. The 4,321-ton British steamer Strathdene was stopped at 0653 and torpedoed at 0743 after the crew had abandoned ship. The 3,878-ton Norwegian steamer Christian Knutsen with a cargo of diesel oil for London was stopped at 0803 and torpedoed at 0953 after the crew had abandoned ship. The 3,847-ton steamer West Point was stopped at 1130 and sunk by explosive charges after the crew had abandoned ship.

Seventeen American destroyers were dispatched from Newport to search for survivors in response to the Nantucket lightship's reports of sinkings. The destroyers arrived about 1700 as U-53 stopped the Dutch steamer Blommersdyk bound for England with contraband cargo. The 3,449-ton British passenger liner Stephano was stopped and the gathering American destroyers took off its crew and passengers. Rose used his last torpedoes to sink Blommersdyk at 1950 and Stephano at 2230. Rose set a homeward course via the Gulf Stream and evaded three British destroyers sent from Canada to intercept him.

Political Ramifications from Trip: There was a great deal of anger amongst the Allied powers after the visit of U-53 to the American port and the subsequent sinking of Allied shipping. While all of the sinkings were done according to Prize Court laws and nobody was killed during them, the attacks instilled fear in the British because of the reach of the German U-boats, and the United States because these attacks occurred so close to American shores. The British were further outraged that most of the attacks occurred while the submarine was surrounded by American destroyers. After a soothing speech by Sir Edward Grey, these complaints were calmed when he pointed out that the American ships had no legal right to interfere with these attacks and had done all they could to rescue the sailors in the water. German newspapers celebrated the trip as a great demonstration of the reach of the German Navy and Captain Rose was praised for his actions.

Career After Voyage: In the summer of 1917 artist Claus Bergen accompanied U-53 on an Atlantic patrol, resulting in a series of well-known paintings. Rose was relieved by von Schrader in 1918. The sub operated primarily within the English Channel after this, attacking Allied and neutral vessels. Von Schrader sank ten more ships of 1,782 tons with U-53 before the armistice on 11 November.


USS Jacob Jones Navy Career: USS Jacob Jones was commissioned into the United States Navy on 10 February 1916 under the command of Lieutenant Commander William S. Pye. Following her commissioning, Jacob Jones conducted training exercises off the New England coast, and then entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs. Upon the United States' entry into World War I on 6 April 1917, Jacob Jones patrolled off the coast of Virginia. She sailed from Boston for Europe on 7 May 1917 with a group of destroyers and arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, on 17 May 1917.

Jacob Jones' duties at Queenstown involved patrolling and escorting convoys in the Irish Sea and making occasional rescues of survivors of sunken ships. On 8 July 1917, Valetta was torpedoed by German submarine U-87 some 120 nautical miles (220 km) west of Fastnet Rock. Jacob Jones arrived on the scene and picked up 44 survivors of the British steamship. While escorting British steamship Dafila two weeks later, lookouts on Jacob Jones sighted a periscope, but before the destroyer could make an attack on the submarine, U-45 torpedoed and sank the steamship. Jacob Jones was able to take on 26 of Dafila's 28-member crew after the ship went down.

On 19 October 1917, the British Armed merchant cruiser Orama and ten destroyers, including Jacob Jones, were escorting an eastbound convoy of twenty steamers, when German submarine U-62 surfaced in the midst of the group. The submarine launched its only remaining torpedo at Orama, sinking that vessel. While sister ship Conyngham saw and depth charged U-62 (to no avail), Jacob Jones turned her attentions to rescuing Orama's survivors, gathering 309 of them.

The Sinking of the USS Jacob Jones: In early December 1917, Jacob Jones helped escort a convoy to Brest, France, with five other Queenstown-based destroyers. The last to depart from Brest on the return to Ireland, Jacob Jones was steaming alone in a zig-zag pattern when she was spotted by Kapitänleutnant Hans Rose on the German submarine U-53. At 16:20 on 6 December 1917, near position 49°23′N, 6°13′W, lookouts on Jacob Jones spotted a torpedo 800 yards (730 m) distant headed for the ship's starboard side. Despite having her rudder put hard left and emergency speed rung up, Jacob Jones was unable to move out of the way, and the torpedo struck her rudder . Even though the depth charges did not explode, Jacob Jones was adrift. The jolt had knocked out power, so the destroyer was unable to send a distress signal; since she was steaming alone, no other ship was present to know of Jacob Jones' predicament.

Commander David W. Bagley, the destroyer's commander, ordered all life rafts and boats launched. He then ordered Jacob Jones to be scuttled, and the ship's cargo of depth charges set on "ready". The ship began to sink by the stern after the scuttling charges were activated. As the ship continued to sink, her bow raised in the air almost vertically before she began to slip beneath the waves. At this point the depth charges began exploding, killing a number of men who had been unable to escape the destroyer, and stunning many others in the water. The destroyer, the first United States destroyer ever lost to enemy action , sank eight minutes after the torpedo struck the rudder, taking with her two officers and 64 men.

In the water, several of the crew — most notably Lieutenant, junior grade, Stanton F. Kalk, the officer-of-the-deck when the torpedo struck — began to get men out of the water and into the life rafts. Kalk worked in the cold Atlantic water to equalize the load among the various rafts, but died of exhaustion and exposure.

Bagley noted in his official account that about 30 minutes after Jacob Jones sank, the German submarine surfaced about two to three miles from the collection of rafts and took one of the American sailors on board. According to Uboat.net, what Rose of U-53 had done was surface and take aboard two badly injured American sailors. Rose had also radioed the American base at Queenstown with the approximate coordinates of the sinking before departing the area.

Bagley, unaware of Rose's humanitarian gesture, left most of the food, water, and medical supplies with Lieutenant Commander John K. Richards, whom he left in charge of the assembled rafts. Bagley, Lieutenant Commander Norman Scott (Jacob Jones' executive officer) and four crewmen (brought along to row), set out for aid in the nearby Isles of Scilly. At 13:00 on 7 December, Bagley's group was sighted by a British patrol vessel just six nautical miles (11 km) from their destination. The group was relieved to find that the British sloop HMS Camellia had found and taken aboard most of the survivors earlier that morning; a small group had been rescued on the night of the sinking by the American steamer Catalina.

Several men were recognized for their actions in the aftermath of the torpedo attack. Kalk (posthumously) and Bagley received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. Others honored included Chief Boatswain's Mate Harry Gibson (posthumously) and Chief Electrician's Mate L. J. Kelly, who both received the Navy Cross; and Richards, Scott, and Chief Boatswain's Mate Charles Charlesworth all received letters of commendation.

Nice complement to ANY military collection.

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Item is as shown in the photos below. Please make sure your expectations of this item match what is shown in the photos prior to bidding. We do not accept returns, all sales are final.

Check out all my photos below. Some of the images of the newspaper clippings and photos from the era will open in high resolution when clicked.

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The following images are provided to document the historical significance of the gyroscope. You are only bidding on the gyroscope. That is the only item you will receive.


Clicking on the images below will open a larger version of the image. You will see the title for the torpedo range calculator auction at the top of the high resolution pages. The torpedo range calculator has been sold and is not included in this auction.


The two framed displays containing the newspaper clippings and the torpedo range calculator (shown between the framed displays) have been sold to a museum in Germany for $5,000 last year. You are bidding on the gyroscope. The following images are shown only to document the historical significance of the gyroscope.

















The torpedo range calculator (shown above) has been sold to a museum in Germany. You are bidding on the gyroscope. Images of the torpedo calculator and framed displays of the newspaper clipings are shown only to document the historical significance of the gyroscope.


This Letter of Provenance is also be included in the auction and will be shipped with the gyroscope.





  • Condition: Used
  • Condition: See photos for the condition of this museum-worthy piece of history.

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