Suddenly, an unidentified schooner knifed her way through the darkness and mist, struck Warrington aft, and sliced off about 30 ft (9.1 m) of her stern.

Warrington was ordered to Bar Harbor, Maine and entered the port with USRCS Androscoggin to prevent unauthorized departure of foreign vessels but primarily to protect the transfer of gold and silver, as well as all mail and passengers, from Kronprinzessin Cecilie to shore to be transported by train to New York.

[5] Warrington ran aground on 20 May 1916 at Rockport, Massachusetts, prompting a board of investigation ordered by the Commander, Destroyer Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet.

[6] Her commanding officer Lt. Isaac F. Dortch was subsequently convicted on three charges in a general court martial and penalized twenty numbers on his service record.

[7] When the United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917, Warrington began patrols off Newport to protect the harbor from German submarines.

She reached Brest, her new base of operations, on 29 November and resumed a grueling schedule of patrols and escort missions.

Lt. Isaacs, the captured naval officer who later escaped from a German prison camp, reported that the charges shook the submarine severely.

However, no evidence of any success appeared on the surface; and the two destroyers, conscious of the importance of landing their human cargo, abandoned the attack and continued on to Brest.

She was sold to M. Black & Company, Norfolk, Virginia, on 28 June 1935 for scrapping in accordance with the terms of the London Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armaments.