The destroyer, like many of her numerous sisters begun during World War I, had entered service at a time when the post-war cutbacks in funds and personnel had seriously curtailed American peacetime naval operations.

Woodbury departed her mooring at the Reserve Docks on 1 February 1921 and, over the next few days, conducted torpedo practices and made a 30-knot (56 km/h) speed run off the southern California coast.

There, her crew assisted in preservation and maintenance work on William Jones (DD-308) while she lay in drydock at the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, San Pedro.

She arrived off Goat Island, near San Francisco, at 0820 the following day and lay to, embarking passengers for transportation to the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, before she resumed her cruise up the Pacific coast.

From early July to late September, Woodbury provided essential maintenance and upkeep services to her sister ships in the decommissioned Destroyer Division 17 moored alongside.

There were only two breaks in the ship's routine during that time: a tender upkeep period alongside Melville (AD-2) and her participation in the funeral of the late Rear Admiral Uriel Sebree, on 8 August, for which she sent a party ashore to form part of the naval escort for the casket.

Held in the vicinity of the strategic Panama Canal Zone, Fleet Problem I was designed to ascertain the defensive condition of that waterway, to allow for the formulation of the "estimate of the situation," and to facilitate the study of war plans.

Underway at 0405 on 27 July, Woodbury departed the fleet's anchorage off Admiralty Head, near Seattle, in company with Destroyer Divisions 32 and 33 to escort Henderson in which the President of the United States, Warren G. Harding, was embarked.

Once her duties in connection with the Presidential review were completed, Woodbury returned to the routine of exercises, acting as a target for the gunnery drills carried out by Battleship Division 4.

After torpedo-firing and gunnery evolutions out of Port Townsend in company with William Jones, Woodbury got underway for Keyport, Washington, en route back to Seattle and Puget Sound.

Reaching the navy yard on the 20th, she embarked the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (CinCUS), Admiral Robert E. Coontz, his staff, and a party of congressmen at 0840 on the 22nd.

After completing her tour in the waters off the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States, Woodbury departed Port Angeles and headed south.

She got underway on the morning of 8 September 1923 with other destroyers of Squadron 11, bound for San Diego, and while skirting the coast over the ensuing hours, conducted tactical exercises and maneuvers.

Later that evening, Delphy - basing her movements on an inaccurate navigational bearing - made a fateful turn, believing she was heading into the Santa Barbara Channel.

Ensign Horatio Ridout, the engineer officer, and his men worked to try to produce the horsepower necessary to get the ship out of her predicament but their efforts were brought to nought when all power failed, due to the flooding, at 2230.

Ultimately, all of Woodbury's crew reached safety, some taken off to Percival (DD-298) by the fishing boat Bueno Amor de Roma, under the command of a Captain Noceti.