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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 Isabel (SP-521, later PY-10), 1917-1946
Isabel, a 930-ton (displacement) fast steam yacht, was
under construction at Bath, Maine, in 1917, when she was acquired
by the Navy for World War I service. Converted a warship at the
Boston Navy Yard, she was equipped with guns and torpedo tubes
which, with her 26-28 knot speed, made her nearly the equal
of some of the Navy's destroyers. USS Isabel (SP-521) was
commissioned in late December 1917 and soon steamed across the
Atlantic to the European war zone. Employed for the rest of the
conflict as a convoy escort off western France, she took part
in several engagements with German submarines. Isabel returned
to the United States early in 1919 and was assigned to recruiting
duty, cruising up the Mississippi River during the spring and
summer and, later in the year, acting as tender to the flying
boat NC-4 as it toured the Atlantic Coast.
When this assignment ended early in 1920, Isabel was
decommissioned, stripped of her torpedo tubes and some of her
guns, and given a large deckhouse on her after deck. Now reclassified
as a patrol vessel converted yacht, with the hull number PY-10,
she was placed back in commission in July 1921 and sent to Asia
by way of the Panama Canal and the Pacific Ocean. She arrived
at Hong Kong in November to begin two decades of Far Eastern service.
As flagship of the Yangtze River Patrol, she operated on that
great river and along the China Coast during most of the 1920s.
Late in the decade Isabel became part-time flagship for
the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, losing the big deckhouse at about that
time. She spent the 1930s and the first two years of the 1940s
cruising in Philippine waters and off China, frequently flying
the four-star flag of the fleet's Commander in Chief.
As tensions with Japan became increasingly ominous durng the
last part of 1941, Isabel was sent on a scouting mission
off Indochina. She was near Manila when the Pacific War began
on 8 December (local time) and was present when Japanese bombers
attacked the Cavite Navy Yard on the 10th. During the first two
months of 1942 she was employed as a convoy escort in the Dutch
East Indies and, in March, joined other surviving Allied warships
as they retreated to Australia. For the rest of World War II Isabel
operated out of Fremantle as an escort and training ship supporting
the U.S. submarines that were based there. In late August 1945,
soon after the fighting ended, she began the long voyage back
to the U.S., arriving at San Francisco, California, in late October.
USS Isabel was decommissioned in February 1946 and sold
for scrapping in March of that year.
This page features views concerning USS Isabel (SP-521,
later PY-10), selected from the comprehensive pictorial coverage
of her contained in the following pages:
USS Isabel (SP-521) -- Views
taken in 1917-1919;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Views
of the Ship taken during the 1920s;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Views
of the Ship taken after 1930;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Distant
Views taken in 1920-1946;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- On Board
Views taken during the 1920s;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Shipboard
Activities, during the 1930s;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Other On
Board Views taken during the 1930s; and
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Miscellaneous
Views.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 544
USS Isabel (SP-521, later PY-10)
Off the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, on 31 December
1917, following conversion to a warship.
Note her Mackay type camouflage scheme, and torpedo tubes installed
amidships.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 480 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 53275
USS Isabel (SP-521, later PY-10)
Making smoke while underway, circa 1919.
Note the torpedo tubes installed amidships on this "destroyer"
converted from a fast yacht.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 60KB; 740 x 585 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 73279
USS Isabel (PY-10)
In Asiatic waters, about 1928.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 83192-KN (color)
USS Isabel (PY-10)
Delicately water color tinted photograph of the ship in Chinese
waters, circa the 1920s.
Collection of Captain Glenn Howell, USN.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 550 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 83530
USS Isabel (PY-10)
At Hankow, China, on 14 May 1937.
She is "dressed overall" in honor of the coronation
of King George VI of England and flies the four-star flag of
Commander in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet.
Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral
Harry E. Yarnell, USN.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 530 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 84776
USS Isabel (PY-10)
In the southwest Pacific area, circa early 1942.
Photograph from the papers of Admiral Thomas C. Hart, USN.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 550 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 80138
USS Isabel (PY-10)
Ship's Number Two Gun (a 3"/50 type) in action during a
gunnery exercise, circa 1933-1934.
The Gun Captain is identified as Tim Shea.
Note man hand ramming cartridge into the gun's breech, and Chief
Petty Officer leaning on line reel spotting the shots with binoculars
as a Sailor takes notes.
Courtesy of Captain G. Knox Bishop, U.S. Air Force, 1974.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 83KB; 740 x 535 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 81649
General Iwane Matsui, Imperial Japanese Army,
Commander of Japanese Expeditionary Forces in the Yangtze Valley
Salutes the Honor Guard as he comes aboard USS Isabel
(PY-10) at Shanghai, China, circa January 1938.
Also saluting, in center, is Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, USN, Commander
in Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet.
Note bugler at the right end of the Honor Guard.
Courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Yarnell, 1975.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 605 pixels |
 |
This page features views concerning USS Isabel (SP-521,
later PY-10), selected from the comprehensive pictorial coverage
of her contained in the following pages:
USS Isabel (SP-521) -- Views
taken in 1917-1919;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Views
of the Ship taken during the 1920s;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Views
of the Ship taken after 1930;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Distant
Views taken in 1920-1946;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- On Board
Views taken during the 1920s;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Shipboard
Activities, during the 1930s;
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Other On
Board Views taken during the 1930s; and
USS Isabel (PY-10) -- Miscellaneous
Views.
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Historical Center home page.
Page made 27 November 2004