As America entered World War I, Patterson patrolled along the New England Coast in the approaches to Newport and Boston to safeguard inbound trans-Atlantic convoys. One patrol mission took her as far north as St. John's, Newfoundland.
The first United States help to the hard-pressed allies was the assignment of US destroyers to the British Fleet to help combat enemy submarines that threatened to cut the sea lifelines to the British Isles. Patterson was the flagship of the second division of destroyers to cross the Atlantic on this mission. But the destroyers could not make it across the North Atlantic without refueling. Newly commissioned fleet oiler Maumee, whose executive officer and chief engineer was LieutenantChester W. Nimitz, stationed herself in mid-Atlantic, between Boston and Queenstown, Ireland.
Patterson led Division 5 out of Boston Harbor on 21 May 1917 and made rendezvous with Maumee the morning of 28 May. She was the first destroyer to maneuver alongside Maumee to receive fuel oil enabling her to complete the Atlantic crossing. The division arrived Queenstown, Ireland, on 1 June 1917. There Patterson and her sister destroyers received British signal books and depth charges.
Patterson began patrol and escort in the approaches to Queenstown on 5 June. On 12 June, she dropped depth charges to help drive away a German U-boat attacking SS Indian. A collision with His Majesty's tug Dreadful at the entrance to Berehaven Harbour, Ireland, the night of 1 January 1918, damaged Patterson's bow but she resumed regular escort and patrol on 5 February. Two days later she rescued 12 survivors of steamship Mexico City, torpedoed by a German submarine. Patterson, patrolling in the Irish Sea on 17 May, dropped depth charges that drove away German U-101. She continued patrol out of Queenstown until 4 June, then departed for the United States.
During the predawn hours of 27 August 1918, the American armed cargo shipSS Felix Taussig mistook the Patterson Group submarine chaser USS SC-209 for a German submarine in the Atlantic Ocean south of Long Island, New York, and opened gunfire on SC-209, hitting her with two 3-inch (76.2 mm) shells. SC-209 caught fire and sank in only three minutes at 40°08′N073°12′W / 40.133°N 73.200°W / 40.133; -73.200 (USS SC-209) with the loss of two officers and 16 men. The submarine chaser USS SC-188 rescued SC–209′s five survivors, four of whom were wounded. Patterson and two other submarine chasers searched the area but found no more survivors. Felix Taussig stood by to render assistance until Patterson directed her to continue her voyage to New York City. It was the U.S. Navy's largest loss of life in a single friendly fire incident during World War I.[6][7]Patterson carried the wounded survivors into New York Harbor for transfer to the U.S. Navy hospital shipUSS Comfort.
Returned to the Navy on 18 October 1930, Patterson remained inactive until her name was cancelled on 1 July 1933 to permit its assignment to USS Patterson (DD-392). Her hulk was sold for scrapping on 2 May 1934 in accordance with the London Naval Treaty. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 June.