High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Bainbridge was launched 12 June 1920 by New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey; sponsored by Miss Juliet Edith Greene, great great-granddaughter of Commodore Bainbridge; commissioned 9 February 1921, Lieutenant Commander E.L. Thebaud in command; and reported to the Atlantic Fleet. Bainbridge operated along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean with the fleet carrying out tactical exercises and maneuvers until October 1922, when she departed for Constantinople to join the Naval Detachment in Turkish waters. On 16 December 1922 she rescued approximately 500 survivors of the burning French military transport Vinh-Long about 10 miles off Constantinople. For extraordinary heroism during the rescue Lieutenant Commander Walter A. Edwards received the Medal of Honor.