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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

USC&GS Lydonia (CS 302)
ex-USS Lydonia (SP 700)

Lydonia served both the U. S. Navy and the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Patrol Yacht:

  • Built in 1912 by Pusey and Jones, Wilmington, DE
  • Acquired by the Navy 21 August 1917
  • Commissioned USS Lydonia (SP 700), 27 October 1917
  • Decommissioned 7 August 1919 at Norfolk, VA and transferred to the Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS) the same day as USCGS Lydonia (CS 302)
  • Remained with the C&GS until 1947
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 497 t.
  • Length 181'
  • Beam 26'
  • Draft 11' 5"
  • Speed 12 kts.
  • Complement 34
  • Armament: Four 3" mounts and two machine guns.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		Size Image Description Source
    Yacht Lydonia
    Lydonia 112k Halftone reproduction of a photograph taken prior to World War I. This yacht served as USS Lydonia (SP-700) in 1917-1919. Copied from "U.S. Navy Pictures World War", page 101.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 1928    		 Naval Historical Center
    USS Lydonia (SP 700)
    Lydonia 89k Rolling in heavy seas, during World War I.
    Courtesy of J. LaRocque Anderson, 1930.
    U.S. Navy Photo NH 46887    		 Naval Historical Center
    Lydonia 102k In Gibraltar harbor, during World War I.
    Courtesy of J. LaRocque Anderson, 1930.
    U.S. Navy Photo NH 46888
    Lydonia 133k In Gibraltar harbor, during World War I.
    Courtesy of J. LaRocque Anderson, 1930.
    U.S. Navy Photo NH 46889
    Lydonia 112k Reproduction of a color-tinted photograph taken while Lydonia was in a Caribbean port in 1919. Location is probably St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. The star on her smokestack indicates that she was credited with sinking a German submarine during World War I.
    Donation of Fred Maidment, 2004.
    U.S. Navy Photo NH 102839-KN
    USCGS Lydonia (CS 302)
    Lydonia 76k . NOAA Website
    Lydonia 136k c. 1941
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Richard Phillip McCullough, USN27 October 1917
    ??LCDR Jean Hodgkins Hawley, USC&GS - Retired as Rear Admiral1923
    ??LCDR H. Arnold Karo, USC&GS - Retired as Vice Admiral1941
    ??LCDR V. Ralph Sobieralski, USC&GS1942
    ??LCDR Earl O. Heaton, USC&GS.
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Bill Gonyo
    View the Lydonia (SP 700)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval Historical Center website
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    This page created and maintained by Joseph M. Radigan
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