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Patrol Yacht Photo Archive

USCGC Mayflower (WPG 183)



World War II call sign:
Nan - Roger - Uncle - Xray

ex-USS Mayflower (PY 1)
ex-USS Mayflower



Call sign (1919):
George - Quack - Sail - Rush


Mayflower served the U. S. Navy and Coast Guard


Mayflower served the U. S. and Israeli Navy.

Patrol Yacht:

  • Built in 1896 as the yacht Ogden Goelet by J. and G. Thompson, Clydebank, Scotland
  • Purchased by the Navy in 1898
  • Commissioned USS Mayflower 24 March 1898 at the New York Navy Yard
  • Decommissioned 1 November 1904
  • Converted to a Presidential Yacht and recommissioned 25 July 1905
  • Designated a Patrol Yacht, PY-1, 17 July 1920
  • Decommissioned 22 March 1929
  • Sold 19 October 1931 to Leo P. Coe, an agent for Frank P. Parish
  • Sold to Broadfoot Iron Works of Wilmington, NC
  • Purchased by the War Shipping Administration 31 July 1942 and renamed Butte
  • Converted for wartime use by Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Portsmouth, VA from 1 October 1942 - 12 August 1943
  • Transferred to the Coast Guard 6 September 1943
  • Commissioned USCGC Mayflower (WPG-183), 19 October 1943
  • Decommissioned 1 July 1946
  • Returned to the War Shipping Administration for disposal
  • Sold 8 January 1947 to Frank M. Shaw of Baltimore, MD for use as an Arctic seal catcher
  • Resold in 1948 to Collins Distributer's, Inc. under Panamanian registration as Malla an Aliyah Bet ship
  • Fitted out for coastal trade at Genoa, Italy
  • Carried Jewish refugees from the ill-fated Exodus to Haifa, Palestine
  • Broken up in 1955.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 2,690 t.
  • Length 273'
  • Beam 36'
  • Draft 13' 2"
    1911 - 17' 4"
  • Speed 17 kts.
    1911 - 16.8 kts.
    1914 - 14.5 kts.
  • Complement 171
    1911 - 174
    1921 - 185
  • Armament: 1898 - Six 6-pounders
    1905 - Ten 6-pounders, two 1-pounders and two Colt machine guns
    1911 - Six 6-pounder rapid fire mounts
    1921 - Four 6-pounder rapid fire mounts
    1943 - One 5"/51 mount, two 3"/50 mounts, six 20mm mounts, two depth charge tracks, four K-guns and one Hedgehog
  • Propulsion: Two Mosher boilers, two 1,200ihp vertical triple-expansion 4-cylinder, double-acting steam engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Mayflower
    Mayflower 58k Photographed in 1898.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 60646    		 Naval Historical Center
    Mayflower 61k . Robert Hurst
    Mayflower 131k U.S. Navy photo from "U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II" by Robert L. Scheina
    Mayflower 164k From the collection of Raymond Strout Jonathan Eno
    Mayflower 200k c. 1904
    Brooklyn Navy Yard
    Library of Congress photo LC-D4-21820 from the Detroit Photographic Co.    		 Mike Green
    Mayflower 182k Military officers are leaving a launch and ascending steps [the accommodation ladder] to Presidential Yacht Mayflower during the Portsmouth Peace Conference in 1905
    Library of Congress photo ppmsca 08834    		 Bill Gonyo
    Mayflower 176k c. 1905
    National Archives photo 43-1289a    		 -
    Mayflower 58k . Robert Hurst
    Mayflower 112k Postcard of U.S. Yacht "Mayflower, the President's Yacht" at anchor, Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY
    © Enrique Muller, 1905    		 © Richard Leonhardt
    Mayflower 112k President Roosevelt, Mrs. Roosevelt, Admiral Coles, Captain Sims, and others on board Mayflower.
    From Stereograph Copyright 1907 by Underwood & Underwood    		 Warren McLean
    Mayflower 112k President Roosevelt and Officers of Battleship Fleet on Board "Mayflower." On President's right Admiral Evans: On his left Admiral Thomas, next: Admiral Sperry, and next Admiral Emery.
    From Stereograph Copyright 1907 by Underwood & Underwood
    Mayflower 110k President Theodore Roosevelt and Admiral Robley Dunglison Evans stroll the deck aboard the Presidential Yacht Mayflower in 1908
    Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division photo cph 3b00102    		 Bill Gonyo
    Mayflower 107k Starboard view of the Presidential Yacht Mayflower ca. 1911 at Annapolis, Maryland. Launch approaching the Mayflower was called (unoffically) the U.S.S. Togo
    Library of Congress photo LC-H261-492    		 Mike Green
    Mayflower 194k President Taft boards the presidential yacht Mayflower on 14 October 1912
    Photo from the Bain Collection Library of Congress    		 Robert Hurst
    Mayflower 102k c. 1917
    French commission to U.S. arriving at the Washington Navy Yard
    Library of Congress photo 08382v, 08384v, 08385v, 08386v and 08287v by Harris and Ewing    		 Tommy Trampp
    Mayflower 120k
    Mayflower 90k
    Mayflower 124k
    Mayflower 119k
    Mayflower 96k North River [New York/New Jersey]
    Admiral Thomas S. Rodgers boarding the Mayflower in December of 1918. LT W. P. Frost is to the right of Admiral Rogers.
    Photo from the New York Public Library    		 Bill Gonyo
    USS Mayflower (PY 1)
    Mayflower 167k Post card dated 15 August 1924 Tommy Trampp
    Mayflower 309k Post card dated 9 August 1925 depicting Mayflower at Marblehead, MA with inset of President Calvin Coolidge
    Mayflower 93k Washington Navy Yard, District of Columbia. Panoramic view of the Navy Yard waterfront, looking north from across the Anacostia River, circa 1927. Ships present are (from left to right): probably USS Porpoise (YFB-2047); USS Allen (DD-66), Naval Reserve training ship; an "Eagle Boat" (PE); Presidential Yacht Mayflower; and probably USS Sylph (PY-12).
    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute Photographic Collection, 1981.
    U.S. Navy photo 91949    		 Naval Historical Center
    Mayflower 331k c. 1928
    Entering dry dock
    Courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones collection    		 Boston Public Libraryt
    Mayflower 291k
    Mayflower 407k 5 June 1928
    In dry dock
    Courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones collection
    Mayflower 294k 26 June 1928
    In dry dock
    Courtesy of Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones collection
    Mayflower 251k
    Mayflower 291k
    USCGC Mayflower (WPG 183)
    Mayflower 49k U.S. Navy photo USNSM and USS Salem (CA 139) web site
    Mayflower 142k 18 February 1944
    U.S. Navy photo
    Mayflower 187k 1 March 1944
    Photo courtesy of A. D. Baker, III from "U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II" by Robert L. Scheina    		 Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Morris Robinson Slidell McKenzie, USN24 March 1898 - 2 February 1899
    02CDR Duncan Kennedy, Jr.,USN15 June 1900 - 16 October 1900
    03LCDR Albert Gleaves, USN16 October 1900
    04LCDR Andrew Theodore Long, USN5 October 1903 - 1 November 1904
    05CDR Cameron McRae Winslow, USN - Retired as Admiral25 July 1905
    06LCDR Carl Theodore Vogelgesang, USN - Retired as Rear AdmiralMarch 1908
    07LCDR Thomas Snowden, USN20 March 1908
    08CDR George Wood Logan, USN1 February 1910
    09LCDR Powers Symington, USN21 August 1911
    10LCDR Robert L. Berry, USN7 May 1914 - September 1917
    11LCDR Ralston Smith Holmes, USN - Retired as Rear Admiral24 March 1919 - 1920
    12LCDR Newton Alexander McCully, USN1921
    13LCDR Carl Townsend Osburn, USN1921 - 1922
    14CDR Wilson Brown, Jr., USN1922 - 20 August 1923
    15CAPT Adolphus Andrews, USN - Retired as Vice Admiral1925
    ??LCDR Leo Hewlett Thebaud, USN - USNA Class of 1913
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Vice Admiral    		1929 - 22 March 1929
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View Mayflower (PY-1) Library of Congress Images
    View the Mayflower (PY-1)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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