Sigourney  I

(DD-81: dp. 1,191 1. 314'41,'2"- b. 30'4"; dr. 9'2"s. 34.7 k.; cpl. 122; a. 4 4" 1 3", 12 21" tt.; cl. Wickes)


	The first Sigourney (DD-81) was Laid down on 25 August 1917 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., 
Quincy, Mass.; launched on 16 December 1917; sponsored by Mrs. Granville W. Johnson; and commissioned 
on 15 May 1918, Comdr. W. N. Vernon in command.


	On 27 May, Sigourney sailed from the United States escorting a troopship to France. On arrival at 
Brest she was assigned to Commander Naval Forces, France, and, for the remainder of World War I, she 
escorted convoys through the submarine danger zone extending approximately 500 miles west of Brest. During 
most of her convoys, Sigourney was the flagship of the screen commander but did not herself have any 
confirmed submarine contacts.


	After the armistice on 11 November, she performed miscellaneous duties in European waters, 
including service in early December as flagship of the four destroyer screen that escorted USS George 
Washington on the middle part of that transport's voyage to carry President Wilson from the United States to 
France for the Versailles Peace Conference. Sigourney sailed from Brest for the United States on 26 December 
1918 and arrived at Boston on 8 January 1919 After overhaul at Boston and summer training at Newport, 
Sigourney was placed in reserve status at Philadelphia on 1 November 1919 and decommissioned there on 26 
June 1922.


	Sigourney was recommissioned at Philadelphia on 23 August 1940 and sailed to Halifax, Nova 
Scotia. There, on 26 November, she was decommissioned and turned over to a Canadian 
care-and-maintenance party. Commissioned by the British as HMS Newport on 5 December, Sigourney was 
struck from the Navy list on 8 January 1941. After engine repairs in England, HMS Newport operated on convoy 
duty as a unit of the Norwegian Navy from March 1941 to June 1942. She then reverted to the British, and, after 
repairs, served as an aircraft target ship from June 1943 until placed in reserve in January 1945. Newport was 
scrapped at Granton, England, on 18 February 1947.