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NavSource Online:
Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Vega (SP 734)
ex-Lyndonia



Call sign:
George - Tare - Fox - Pup
Patrol Yacht:

  • Built in 1905 by the Gas Engine and Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, NY
  • Acquired by the Navy 5 September 1917
  • Commissioned USS Lyndonia (SP 734), 4 December 1917 at Philadelphia, PA
    Ships' Data U.S. Naval Vessels dated 1 November 1918 indicates that commissioning was 17 September 1917
  • Renamed Vega 20 February 1918
  • Decommissioned 13 September 1919 at Philadelphia
  • Sold 20 December 1921 to Charles H. Crocker of San Francisco, CA
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 276 t.
  • Length 175'
  • Beam 20' 4"
  • Draft 7' 9"
  • Speed 15 kts.
  • Complement 69
  • Armament: One 3" mount, one 6-pounder and two machine guns
  • Propulsion: Two Seabury boilers, two 600hp vertical triple expansion steam engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Steam Yacht Lyndonia
    Lyndonia 80k Photographed prior to World War I
    U.S. Navy photos NH 755 and NH 99896    		 Naval Historical Center
    Lyndonia 131k
    USS Vega (SP 734)
    Vega 109k
    Namesake:

    Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. This star is relatively close at only 25 light-years from the Sun, and, together with Arcturus and Sirius, one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood. It is the fifth-brightest star in the night sky, and the second-brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, after Arcturus. To find the star Vega in the constellation Lyra, look directly overhead. North lies at the top of the sky map

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 27 October 2020
    Vega 79k Off Cape May, New Jersey, circa summer or fall 1918. The four-masted schooner in the right center background is probably USS Robert H. McCurdy (SP 3157), a decoy ship intended to lure German U-Boats within torpedo range of nearby U.S. Navy submarines.
    Collection of Christopher H.W. Lloyd. Donated by Virginia Agostini, 1990.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 102634    		 Naval Historical Center
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR John James McCracken, USN17 September 1917
    02LT James Willey, II, USNRF1918 - 1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the Lyndonia (SP 734) DANFS
    and the
    Vega (SP 734) DANFS
    histories located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Section Patrol Craft (SP) Photo Index
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by David Wright
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