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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Helvetia (SP-3096), 1918-1919
Originally merchant sailing schooner Helvetia
USS Helvetia, a 499-ton three-masted schooner, was built
at Rockland, Maine, in 1905 as the civilian vessel Helvetia.
She was purchased by the Navy in July 1918 and subsequently used
as a decoy ship. It was expected that her innocent mercantile
appearance would draw German submarines to the surface to make
an easy gunfire attack. The unsuspecting U-boats would then be
easy prey for a U.S. Navy submarine lurking submerged nearby.
Helvetia apparently made active patrols for this purpose,
but no U-boats rose to the bait. She reportedly was also employed
as a submarine stores and mother ship at Norfolk, Virginia, and
New London, Connecticut. Helvetia was sold back to her
former owner in March 1919.
This page features our only views of USS Helvetia,
taken before and during her Naval service.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 101784
Helvetia (U.S. Schooner, 1905)
Probably photographed prior to World War I.
This three-masted schooner served as USS Helvetia (SP-3096)
in 1918-19.
The original print is in National Archives' Record Group 19-LCM.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 585 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 102631
Helvetia (U.S. Schooner, 1905)
Probably photographed in July 1918, when she was inspected and
acquired for the U.S. Navy as USS Helvetia (SP-3096).
Intended to serve as a decoy to lure German U-boats within torpedo
range of U.S. submarines operating nearby, Helvetia was
operationally deployed but never encountered the enemy.
Copied from an "SP" data card held by the Naval Historical
Center's Ships' Histories Branch, 1991.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 515 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 102632
Helvetia (U.S. Schooner, 1905)
Probably photographed in July 1918, when she was inspected and
acquired for the U.S. Navy as USS Helvetia (SP-3096).
Intended to serve as a decoy to lure German U-boats within torpedo
range of U.S. submarines operating nearby, Helvetia was
operationally deployed off the U.S. Atlantic Coast but did not
encounter the enemy.
Copied from an "SP" data card held by the Naval Historical
Center's Ships' Histories Branch, 1991.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 495 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 78920
USS Helvetia (SP-3096)
Under sail, as seen from the submarine USS E-2 (SS-25),
during an anti-submarine patrol in 1918.
Helvetia, a former civilian schooner, was intended to
serve as decoy ship to entice German submarines to surface and
attack her with gunfire, hereupon the U.S. Navy submarine, following
submerged, would torpedo the enemy U-Boat.
Courtesy of the Submarine Force Library and Museum, Groton, Connecticut,
1972.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 445 pixels |
 |
USS Helvetia is probably seen in the background of
the following photograph of her sister "decoy ship"
USS Robert H. McCurdy
(ID # 3157):
Photo #: NH 102633
USS Robert H. McCurdy (ID # 3157)
Photographed in 1918, probably in late July when she was acquired
for U.S. Navy service as a decoy ship operating in cooperation
with U.S. submarines in an attempt to trap German U-Boats operating
off the Atlantic Coast.
The three-masted schooner at left is almost certainly USS Helvetia
(ID # 3096), which was acquired at the same time, for the same
purpose. The vessel nested between the two appears to be a lightship.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 470 pixels |
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Page made 24 February 2001
New image added 28 December 2004