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NavSource Online:
Patrol Yacht Photo Archive

USS Coral (PY 15)
ex-USC&GS Sialia



Call sign (1919):
Nan - Nan - Vice

ex-USS Sialia (SP 543)



Sialia's civilian call sign (1926):
Love - Dog - George - Jig


Sialia served both the U. S. Navy and the Coast and Geodetic Survey

Patrol Yacht:

  • Built in 1914 by Pusey and Jones, Wilmington, DE for J. K. Stewart
  • Sold in 1917 to Henry Ford of Dearborn, MI
  • Acquired by the Navy 10 June 1917
  • Commissioned USS Sialia (SP 543), 30 June 1917
  • Transferred to the Coast and Geodetic Survey 6 October 1919
  • Returned to U.S. Navy custody 6 February 1920
  • Sold 13 April 1920 to her former owner
  • Registered in 1926 to Henry Ford of Dearborn, MI as the yacht Sialia
  • Sold in 1927 to A. N. Andrews Investment Corp. of New York, NY
  • Sold in 1935 to Evan Jones
  • Sold in 1937 to Elenor V. Jackson
  • Sold in 1939 to Milton C. Jackson, Clipper Lines, Inc. and renamed Yankee Clipper
  • Reacquired by the Navy 25 November 1940
  • Recommissioned as a Patrol Yacht, USS Coral (PY 15), 27 February 1941
  • Decommissioned 12 August 1943
  • Recommissioned 27 August 1943
  • Decommissioned 10 September 1943 at Norfolk, VA and laid up
  • Sold 15 July 1947
  • Fate unknown.

    Sialia specifications:

  • Displacement 558 t.
    1926 - 726 t.
  • Length 207'
    1926 - 206.5'
  • Beam 27'
  • Draft 11' 3"
    1926 - 17.1'
  • Speed 14.5 kts.
  • Complement 61
    1926 - 25
  • Armament: Two 3"/24 Davis gun mounts and two machine guns
  • Propulsion: Two Babcock and Wilcox boilers, two 1,200hp vertical triple-expansion steam engines, two shafts.

    Coral specifications:

  • Displacement 790 t.
  • Length 214' 6"
  • Beam 26' 7"
  • Draft 13'
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Armament: Two 3" mounts
  • Propulsion: Steam, two shafts. **************************************************
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Steam Yacht Sialia
    Sialia 36k
    Sialia 87k
    Sialia 117k
    Sialia 73k Historical Collection of the Great Lakes
    Sialia 125k
    Sialia 103k
    Sialia 105k Underway prior to her World War I Navy service
    U.S. Navy photo NH 102217    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Sialia 163k c. 1929
    Salvage vessel Resolute keeping Edsel Ford's yacht Sialia afloat at the Atlantic Works, East Boston, MA after she was nearly wrecked on the Hens and Chickens Reef. The salvage ship freed the yacht from the reef, towed her to the yard, and pumped her out
    Photographed by Leslie Jones, 1929, courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection from Shipscribe.com    		 Robert Hurst
    USC&GS Sialia
    Sialia 108k NOAA History website
    USS Coral (PY 15)
    Coral 54k
    Namesake:

    Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Corals species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Coral 275k Courtesy of D. M. McPherson, 1974
    U.S. Navy photo NH 81384    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Jules James, USN - USNA Class of 1908
    Awarded two Legion of Merits (1943/1945) - Retired as Vice Admiral    		1919
    02LCDR W. H. Meyer, USN27 February 1941
    03LCDR William Wilson Chism, USNRSeptember 1941 - April 1942
    04LCDR John H. Church, Jr., USNRApril 1942 - 12 August 1943 and 27 August 1943 - 10 September 1943
    Courtesy Joe Radigan and Wolfgang Hechler
    View the Sialia (SP 543)
    DANFS History entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command Website
    View the Coral (PY 15)
    DANFS History entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command Website
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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