USS Barry, a 420-ton Bainbridge class destroyer, was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was commissioned in late November 1902 and served for the next year with the North Atlantic Fleet. With four of her sister destroyers, Barry steamed across the Atlantic, transited the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal and crossed the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea between December 1903 and April 1904. For the next thirteen years she served in the Far East, operating off China and in the Philippine Islands.

In August 1917, some months after the United States entered World War I, Barry retraced her route to reinforce the anti-submarine effort in European waters. After nearly a year of convoy escort and patrol service in the vicinity of Gibraltar, she returned to the United States and was based at Charleston, South Carolina until after the November 1918 Armistice. Barry was stationed at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from January 1919 until she decommissioned in late June. She was sold at the beginning of 1920.

USS Barry was named in honor of Commodore John Barry (1745-1803), one of the most important leaders of the early United States Navy.