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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Robert H. McCurdy (SP 3157)

Schooner:

  • Built in 1903 by Cobb, Butler and Co., Rockland, ME
  • Acquired by the Navy 25 July 1918 from W. S. Job and Co. of New York, NY and commissioned the same day
    Ships Data, U.S. Naval Vessels of 1 November 1918 shows commissioning date as 18 July 1918
  • Decommissioned in February 1919 at Philadelphia, PA
  • Struck from the Naval Register 25 June 1919 and sold
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 735 t.
  • Length 178'
  • Beam 37' 2"
  • Draft 11' 6"
  • Speed: Non-self propelled
  • Complement Four.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Vega 79k Vega (SP 734) off Cape May, New Jersey, circa summer or fall 1918. The four-masted schooner in the right center background is Robert H. McCurdy
    Collection of Christopher H. W. Lloyd. Donated by Virginia Agostini, 1990
    U.S. Navy photo NH 102634    		 Naval Historical Center
    Robert H. McCurdy 83k In harbor, circa mid-1918. This four-masted schooner was employed as an anti-submarine "mystery ship" during the last months of World War I
    Photographed by A.E. Gaynor
    U.S. Navy photo NH 22
    Robert H. McCurdy 84k In harbor, during World War I. This four-masted schooner was employed as an anti-submarine "mystery ship". In the background are a converted yacht patrol vessel (left) and a submarine chaser (right)
    U.S. Navy photo NH 46475
    Robert H. McCurdy 93k Photographed in 1918, probably in late July when she was acquired for U.S. Navy service as a decoy ship operating in cooperation with U.S. submarines in an attempt to trap German U-Boats operating off the Atlantic Coast. The three-masted schooner at left is almost certainly USS Helvetia (SP 3096), which was acquired at the same time, for the same purpose. The vessel nested between the two appears to be a lightship.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 102633
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Robert H. McCurdy (SP-3157), a wooden schooner built in 1903 by Cobb, Butler & Co., Rockland, Maine, was purchased by the Navy from W. S. Job & Co. and taken over at Norfolk, Va., on 25 July 1918. Commissioned the same day, Lt. S. O. Fernstron, USNRF, in command, Robert H. McCurdy remained in the Norfolk area until mid-August; then shifted to Lewes, Del. Into October, she operated with the submarine tender Savannah (AS 8), assigned to Division 8, Submarine Force; but, by the end of the month, had taken up duties out of Cold Springs Inlet, N.J. On 29 November she sailed to Atlantic City, whence she participated in clearing minefields east of that resort town until 8 December.

    The schooner then returned to Cold Springs Inlet where she remained until towed to Philadelphia at the end of January 1919 for inactivation. Arriving on the 29th, Robert H. McCurdy was decommissioned early in February and was subsequently struck from the Navy list and sold.

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