USS Mason, a 1190-ton Clemson class destroyer built at Newport News, Virginia, was commissioned in February 1920. When the U.S. Navy formally implemented the ship hull number system in July 1920, she was designated DD-191. Two years later, following a little over two years' operations along the U.S. east coast, she was placed out of commission at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Mason remained in "red lead row" for over seventeen years, but the outbreak of World War II in Europe brought her back to active duty. Recommissioned in December 1939, she was stationed in the Atlantic until October 1940, when she was transferred to Great Britain as part of the "Destroyers for Bases" agreement.
As a Royal Navy ship, Mason was renamed Broadwater. For nearly a year she served in the Western Aproaches to the British Isles, on convoy duty around the Cape of Good Hope and on similar missions in the North Atlantic. In mid-October 1941, while escorting a convoy to the south of Iceland, HMS Broadwater was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine.
USS Mason was named in honor of John Y. Mason (1799-1859), who served as Secretary of the Navy in 1844-1845 and 1846-1849.
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Page made 1 June 2002