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NavSource Online:
Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Cythera (PY-26)
ex-SP-575

Sunk 2 May 1942

Patrol Yacht: Laid down as the yacht Agawa by Ramage and Feguson Ltd., Leith, Scotland; Launched, 20 September 1906; Leased by the Navy in 1917; Commissioned USS Cythera (SP 575), 20 October 1917; Decommissioned 17 March 1919; Returned to her owner 19 March 1919; Reacquired by the Navy, 31 December 1941; Converted to a Patrol Yacht, PY-26, 28 February 1942; Placed in service, 3 March 1942; Torpedoed by the U-402 and sunk off North Carolina, 2 May 1942; Struck from the Naval Register, 24 June 1942.

Specifications: Displacement 1,000 t; Length 215'; Beam 27' 6"; Draft 12'; Speed 12 kts; Complement 113 (71 at time of sinking); Armament three 3" gun mounts.


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Size Image Description Source
Agawa 27k The Yacht Agawa .
Agawa 55k The Yacht Agawa .
Cythera 237k In port in 1917, possibly when she was inspected by the Third Naval District on 5 July 1917.
U.S. Navy photo NH 99658
Navy Historical Center
Cythera 237k Cythera (SP 575) Jim Rogers
Cythera 237k Preparing to take USS Margaret (SP-527) in tow, during their passage from Bermuda to the Azores in November 1917. She towed Margaret for thirteen of the nineteen days of this voyage. Another converted yacht is visible in the
center distance.
Photographed from on board Margaret by Raymond D. Borden.
U.S. Navy photo NH 55550
Navy Historical Center
Cythera 237k Just after her tow line to USS Margaret (SP-527) had parted, during their passage from Bermuda to the Azores in November 1917
Photographed from on board Margaret by Raymond D. Borden.
U.S. Navy photo NH 55551
Navy Historical Center
Cythera 237k Cythera (PY-26) in port, 2 March 1942.
Courtesy of D. M. McPherson, 1975.
U.S. Navy photo NH 83392
Navy Historical Center

View the Sector Patrol Vessel Cythera (SP 575 / PY 26))
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway web site, the main archive for the DANFS Online Project.
Read the story
"OVERDUE ATLANTIC" - USS CYTHERA (PY 26)
by Robert P. Sables, LTC, MSC, AUS, Ret.
Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Ship Type Index Back to the Section Patrol Craft (SP) Photo Index Back to the Patrol Yacht (PY) Photo Index

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