The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Chief Carpenter F. G. Purdy, United States Navy, for distinguished and heroic service in the line of his profession on 17 September 1918, on the occasion of a fire on the U.S. Sub Chaser No. 59, at the Marine Basin, Brooklyn, New York. Two depth bombs of large size were on the Y gun aft, and six more on deck. Although the vessel was enveloped in flames, which were rising as high as the mastheads, Chief Carpenter Purdy, accompanied by four enlisted men, neither he nor the men accompanying him being attached to the ship, went on board without orders, and removed the bombs from the Y gun, these bombs being so hot that the paint on them was blistered.