USS Yale, a 10,499 gross ton auxiliary cruiser, was built in 1889 at Glasgow, Scotland, as the British-flag passenger liner City of Paris. Transferred to U.S. registry in 1893 and renamed Paris, she was chartered by the Navy in April 1898, converted for Spanish-American War use and renamed Yale. Placed in commission in early May, she was initially employed off Puerto Rico, capturing a Spanish freighter and seeing action with an enemy warship and shore batteries. Later in May Yale operated off Haiti, Santiago de Cuba and Jamaica. In June and July the ship cruised between the U.S. and the Caribbean, and in August transported troops home from Cuba. USS Yale was decommissioned in September 1898. Returned to her owners, she resumed commercial service as SS Paris.
During World War I, the liner, which had been renamed Philadelphia in 1901, was used as a troop transport on behalf of the U.S. Army. The Navy took her over in 1918, placing her in commission as USS Harrisburg (ID # 1663) in late May. For the remainder of the conflict she continued to take troops to Europe, making four voyages to England and France before the November 1918 Armistice brought an end to the fighting. She then reversed the flow, making six more trips to transport servicemen home from the former war zone. USS Harrisburg was decommissioned in September 1919 and again took up civil employment as Philadelphia. She was scrapped at Genoa, Italy, in 1923.
This page features all the views we have concerning USS Yale (1898) and USS Harrisburg (ID # 1663), and provides links to pictures of this ship as a commercial passenger liner.
For images of this ship during her long commercial career,
see:
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.
The following images concern USS Harrisburg (ID # 1663), during 1918-1919:
Photo #: NH 41734-A USS Harrisburg (ID # 1663) -- probable identification In Brest harbor, France, 1918, with a steam lighter alongside. Photographed from the waterfront at U.S. Naval Air Station, Brest. Absence of a mainmast amidships and a camouflage pattern differing from that on her sister, USS Plattsburg (ID # 1645), strongly indicates that this ship is Harrisburg. This image is cropped from Photo # NH 41734. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 565 pixels |
![]() |
Photo #: NH 103919 USS Harrisburg (ID # 1663) Moored in port with a barge alongside, circa 1918. Note her pattern camouflage. The original image was printed on postal card ("AZO") stock. See Photo # NH 103919-A for a view of the reverse of the original print, with the handwritten inscription: "The Ship that brought Me home - Liverpool England" and (in another hand and ink type) "July 1919". Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2006. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 51KB; 740 x 470 pixels |
![]() |
Photo #: NH 85643 USS Harrisburg (ID # 1663) Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken in New York Harbor while the ship was engaged in transporting U.S. servicemen home from France, circa 1919. The tug Columbia is in the right foreground. Courtesy of Alfred Cellier, 1977. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 495 pixels |
![]() |
Photo #: NH 103919-A USS Harrisburg (ID # 1663) Reverse of a postal card format photographic print of the ship taken circa 1918, bearing the handwritten inscription "The Ship that brought Me home - Liverpool England" and (in another hand and ink type) "July 1919". See Photo # NH 103919 for a view of the front of the original print, showing the ship. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2006. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 75KB; 470 x 765 pixels |
![]() |
Photo #: NH 82951 "The Original U.S. Troop Transports" Chart compiled 16 August 1919, showing the number of trans-Atlantic "turn arounds" and their average duration for thirty seven U.S. Navy troop transports employed during and immediately after World War I. Collection of the USS Pocahontas Reunion Association, 1974. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 157KB; 690 x 655 pixels Click here to rotate chart 90 degrees clockwise |
![]() |
For images of this ship during her long commercial career,
see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 13 October 1998
Link added 17 April 2007