She performed patrol duty off the coast of Ireland and escorted merchant ship convoys through the zone of greatest danger from Imperial German Navy submarines.

Paulding dropped two depth charges, the first of which shook L2 severely and jammed her diving planes in a hard-upward position.

[1] The force commander of British submarines, Captain Martin Dunbar-Nasmith, commended L2 and the destroyers for the action in his report on the friendly fire incident.

Admiral Lewis Bayly, the Royal Navy′s Commander-in-Chief, Coast of Ireland, in his endorsement of Nasmith′s report, wrote, "Had L-2 not been very skillfully and coolly handled, she would have been lost.

"[1] Davis rescued many survivors of torpedoed vessels, and on 12 May 1918 picked up 35 members of the crew of the German submarine U-103, which had been sunk by the troopship HMT Olympic, turning her prisoners over to British military authorities at Milford Haven, Wales.

Davis returned to New York 7 January 1919 and after an overhaul there joined Division 4, Flotilla 8, Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet, to cruise along the U.S. East Coast.