USS Nokomis (SP-609)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Nokomis.
USS Nokomis (SP-609) dockside.
Career (USA)
Name: USS Nokomis
Owner: Horace E. Dodge of Detroit, Michigan
Builder: Pusey & Jones of Wilmington, Delaware
Laid down: date unknown
Launched: 1914
Christened: as Nokomis II
Completed: 1914
Acquired: 1 June 1917
Commissioned: 3 December 1917 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as Nokomis (SP-609)
Decommissioned: 25 February 1921
In service: July 1921
Out of service: 15 February 1938 at Norfolk, Virginia
Reclassified: USS Nokomis (PY-6)
Struck: 25 May 1938
Fate: Not known
General characteristics
Type:Yacht
Displacement:872 gross tons
Tons burthen:1,265 tons
Length:243’
Beam:31’ 10”
Draft:12’ 10”
Propulsion:Steam engine
Speed:16 knots
Complement:191 officers and enlisted
Armament:Four 3-inch guns
Two AA machine guns

USS Nokomis (SP-609) was a yacht purchased by the U.S. Navy during World War I. She was outfitted as a patrol craft with 3-inch guns, and assigned to protect commercial shipping in the North Atlantic Ocean from German submarines and Q-ships. Post-war she was returned to the U.S. and decommissioned. Subsequently, she was placed back into service as a survey vessel, a role she maintained for nearly two decades before again being decommissioned and struck from the Navy List.

Built in Delaware

The first ship to be so named by the U.S. Navy, Nokomis was a yacht built as Nokomis II by Pusey & Jones, Wilmington, Delaware, in 1914. The Navy purchased the yacht from Horace E. Dodge of Detroit, Michigan 1 June 1917. The ship was renamed Nokomis 19 November 1917 and was commissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 3 December 1917.

World War I service

North Atlantic Ocean duty

Fitted out at Philadelphia, Nokomis sailed for Bermuda 19 December with a French submarine chaser in tow. She departed Bermuda for Brest, France, 8 January 1918, stopping en route at the Azores and Leixões, Portugal. Operating with the U.S. Patrol Squadron for the remainder of the war, she helped protect American troop transports approaching the coast of France.

Nokomis spent the rest of the conflict on patrol and escort duty off western France, and remained in European waters for several months after the November 1918 Armistice brought an end to the fighting.

Reclassified as a survey ship

Terminating this duty in 1919, Nokomis returned to the United States in August. Reclassified PY–6 in 1920, the yacht decommissioned at New York City 25 February 1921.

Outfitted as a ship's tender for the Naval Governor of Santo Domingo in July 1921, she did not assume this duty. On 26 March 1924, under command of Royal E. Ingersoll, Nokomis was fitted out as a survey ship and surveyed in the Cuban–Haitian area, making new charts of the north coast of Cuba.[1] Under direction of the Hydrographic Office she conducted surveys in Mexican and Caribbean waters. During 1935 in a cooperative effort with Instituto Geografico de Colombia Nokomis surveyed Cartagena Bay .[2]

Final decommissioning

Returning to Norfolk, Virginia, 24 September 1934, Nokomis decommissioned 15 February 1938 and was struck from the Navy Register 25 May 1938.

See also

References