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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 78920:  USS Helvetia under sail during an anti-submarine patrol in 1918

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.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

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

 

If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 24 February 2001
New image added 28 December 2004