Ships
- USS Edsall (DD-219) Captain, 10 October 1921 – 25 November 1921
Lieutenant Ray P. Helm of the United States Navy commanded the destroyer Edsall in the autumn of 1921. He took her as captain on 10 October and left her on 25 November, a tour of a little more than six weeks, while he held the rank of lieutenant.
Edsall was a Clemson-class destroyer built by William Cramp and Sons at Philadelphia. Launched on 29 July 1920, she was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 26 November 1920. She carried the name of Seaman Norman Eckley Edsall, killed on 1 April 1899 while serving ashore from the cruiser Philadelphia near Apia, Samoa. Her first commanding officer was A. H. Rice.
In that opening year the ship worked up and then trained with the fleet. She passed through the Panama Canal early in January 1921, called at Salina Cruz on the Mexican coast, and reached San Diego on 11 January. From that base she spent the year in battle practice and gunnery with other ships. Halsey Powell commanded her from June to September 1921. Helm’s weeks fell inside the same West Coast season, with Edsall still in the Pacific.
His command ended on 25 November 1921. The destroyer reached Charleston, South Carolina, on 28 December and, on 26 May 1922, sailed for the Mediterranean to join the naval detachment in Turkish waters. Helm’s time in Edsall belonged to her first year on the Pacific coast, before that long duty overseas began.