The first USS Jenkins (DD-42) was a modified Paulding-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I.

[5] As the war raged in Europe, Jenkins continued patrol operations along the North American coast in search of possible German U-boats.

Based at Queenstown, Ireland, Jenkins and her sister destroyers patrolled the eastern Atlantic, escorting convoys and rescuing survivors of sunken merchant ships.

On 16 January 1918, Jenkins and the destroyer USS Shaw were escorting the American armed passenger ship SS New York in the Irish Sea during a voyage to Liverpool, England.

[6] Following the signing of the Armistice with Germany on 11 November 1918, Jenkins sailed for the United States, arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, on 3 January 1919.