USS Aphrodite (SP-135)

USS Aphrodite at sea during World War I.
History
United States
Name: USS Aphrodite
Namesake: Aphrodite, The goddess of love and fertility in Greek mythology (previous name retained)
Builder: Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
Launched: 1 December 1898
Sponsored by: Miss. Vivien Scott
Completed: 1899
Acquired: 11 May 1917
Commissioned: 5 June 1917
Decommissioned: 12 July 1919
Fate: Returned to owner 12 July 1919
Notes: Operated as private yacht Aphrodite 1899-1917 and from 1919
General characteristics
Type: Patrol vessel
Displacement: 1,500 tons
Length: 302 ft (92 m)
Beam: 35 ft 6 in (10.82 m)
Draft: Approximately 17 ft 6 in (5.33 m) (aft)
Speed: 15 knots
Complement: 68
Armament:

USS Aphrodite (SP-135) was an armed yacht that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919.

Construction

SS Aphrodite as a private yacht sometime between 1899 and 1917.

Aphrodite was built for Colonel Oliver H. Payne of New York City as a civilian yacht in 1899 by Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine. The contract for the yacht was signed in January 1898 with construction of a ship shed in which to build started a month later, the keel laid in June with the hull launched and christened on 1 December 1898 Aphrodite by Miss. Vivien Scott, the daughter of the yacht's commander, Captain C. W. Scott.[1]

As built specifications include: length overall, including bowsprit 344 feet (104.9 m), length overall, hull 303 feet (92.4 m), beam, molded 35 feet 6 inches (10.8 m), depth, side, molded 35 feet 6 inches (10.8 m), normal cruising draft 15 feet (4.6 m), loaded draft 16 feet (4.9 m), gross tonnage Custom House Measurement 1,148.[1] The hull was divided from main deck down by seven watertight steel bulkheads athwart ship and two similar bulkheads extending from lower deck down to divide the vessel into eighteen water tight compartments.[1] A vertical triple expansion steam engine with cylinders of 28 inches (71.1 cm), 43.25 inches (109.9 cm) and 70 inches (177.8 cm) with a stroke of 38 inches (96.5 cm) was designed for 3,200 horsepower at about 132 revolutions drove a four bladed right hand bronze propeller cast as a single piece.[1]

Contract speed was 15 knots with trials in a snowstorm producing a mean speed of 15.53 knots including slowdowns and 16.8 knots excluding slowdowns even though hull cementing had not been completed for best speeds.[1] Cabin finishing joiner work, hull cementing and final touches were done in New York.[1] Coal bunkers were sufficient for an Atlantic crossing at a steady 15 knots.[1] Cost of the yacht were about $450,000 for construction and $10,000 per month operating expenses.[1]

The Aphrodite was a Yacht used by the United States Navy during World War One as an escort vessel. But to properly tell her history you need to start fifty-nine years before she was built. The man who envisioned her, and had her built was Oliver Hazard Payne, who would one day lead men in battle during the American Civil War and would become one of the richest men in the world.

Oliver Hazard Payne was born on 21 July, 1839 and passed away on 27 June, 1917. Payne was an American businessman, organizer of the American Tobacco trust, and assisted with the formation of U.S. Steel, and was affiliated with Standard Oil. He is considered one of the 100 wealthiest Americans, having left an enormous fortune. His estate at Esopus, New York, known as the Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne Estate, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002 and is now the home of Marist College, Raymond A. Rich Institute for Leadership Development.

He was the son of businessman-politician Henry B. Payne and was named for Oliver Hazard Perry the naval hero. He graduated from Phillips Academy Andover in 1859, and then studied at Yale University. At the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861 he enlisted in the Union Army, though he could have afforded to pay someone to go in his place. In 1863, he became Colonel of the 124th Ohio Infantry. Upon the end of the war, he began his career, investing in iron and then oil refining. His oil interests were the first acquired by Standard Oil, and he became a trustee of that firm and acted as a lobbyist. He was charged with bribing members of the Ohio Legislature to attain a Senate seat for his father (before the U.S. Senate was directly elected), and with bribing the Democratic Party to name his brother-in-law United States Secretary of the Navy, though the charges were dropped.

Later in his life Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne who was a lifelong bachelor had an idea to have a private yacht built. This idea Payne had would at the time become the world’s most luxurious private yacht.

The man who would be the Aphrodite’s master was Captain Charles W. Scott. He was a seasoned yacht master and had become one of Colonel Payne’s trusted inner-circle. Captain Scott was born in England in 1859 and had immigrated to the States about 1869-75. Scott was so trusted by Colonel Payne that when Payne passed away Captain Scott was willed a sum of $25,000. This was second only to Payne’s confidante Emma C. Larson who received $50,000 and these amounts far exceeded any amounts Payne willed to his other employees, so clearly Captain Scott was a very trusted man by Colonel Payne.

Before Colonel Payne hired Captain Scott he had been the master of a steam yacht in 1893 named the Sagamore owned by a Mr. Edwin Scott of Philadelphia, who was no relation to Captain Scott. Colonel Payne convinced Captain Scott to become the master of a yacht he was leasing, and so he left the Sagamore and took over as the master of Payne’s leased yacht the Endeavor. Payne had leased the Endeavor for several years before building the Aphrodite. Captain Scott had taken Payne aboard the Endeavor to Europe several times, and when Colonel Payne decided to build his own yacht he asked Captain Scott to assist him in the design of a new yacht. The Aphrodite took her general lines and shape from the Endeavor but the Aphrodite would be much larger and have modern fittings.

When it came time to build his new yacht Payne called on Charles Ridgely Hanscom, the Superintendent of the Bath Iron Works to make Payne’s dream a reality. Hanscom quickly got to work and employed such designers as Stanford White who at the time was one of the country’s leading architects to create the new yacht’s interior spaces.

There were no large reception rooms on the yacht, instead there was an expansive deck with more than six feet between the rail and the deckhouse, providing a clear view from bow to stern, though this resulted in reduced space for the steel deckhouse and the mahogany-paneled quarters within. There was, however, an extra-large dining saloon in the forward part of the deckhouse, enabling Payne and his guests to dine amid magnificent sea views. The yacht was classified as a steam yacht because she could navigate under steam, but she could also navigate under sail. The yacht carried some 17,000 square feet of sail, which was used often when weather permitted. On her maiden voyage from Bath, Maine down to New York City she reached a speed of 17-knots, which was two more than her contract called out. She was also a very sturdy and seaworthy vessel, which was demonstrated during one of the early trips to Europe when she was west bound out of the Azores to New York City. She ran headlong into a hurricane and weathered the storm very well and came through with very little damage.

Colonel Payne kept the name of his yacht a close secret right up to the launching day. The reason he kept this name a secret will never be known nor will the reason he chose her name. That secret name was Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of Love. Possibly he chose this name because he had not taken a wife during his life and he secretly wished he had the love of a woman. But now in a sense, he did have the love of a woman, one that was 300-feet in length, and was the largest steam yacht ever to be built in the United States at that time.

On December 1, 1898 14-year old Miss Vivian Scott had the honors of bestowing the name of Aphrodite onto Payne’s new yacht. Miss Scott swung a bottle of American wine onto the bow of the vessel and uttered the words “I name you Aphrodite” as the new ship slid off the ways. Miss Scott was the daughter of Charles W. Scott who was chosen by Colonel Payne to be her Master. On the day of the launching Colonel Payne had previous engagements and could not attend the launching, but as the Aphrodite slipped into the cold waters of the Kennebec River a dispatch was quickly sent off to Colonel Payne stating that his new yacht cut smoothly into the river at 2 o’clock that afternoon. A waiting tug took the new yacht in tow and took her back to the shipyard where she was completed.

Her first official voyage was started from Bath, Maine on March 25, 1899 with Captain Scott at the helm, and as she left the Bath Iron Works Yards she was saluted from the shore as she made her way down the Kennebec River to the open ocean for the very first time. Aphrodite's launch was breathlessly covered in The New York Times, which continued to chronicle her travels for more than a decade, from her arrival in New York on March 29, 1899, when she "steamed up the North River and anchored off Forty-Second Street" to her annual trips to Europe and the Mediterranean. The snowy-hulled yacht became a frequent sight further up the river at West Park, where Colonel Payne had an 800-acre country estate with nearly a mile of riverfront.

Between the years 1900 and 1914 the Aphrodite made many trips to Europe always under the hand of Captain Scott. Colonel Payne and his nephew Payne Whitney who lived with the Colonel was a frequent sailing passenger on these trips. The favorite locations were to the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas and frequently trips to England.

The Aphrodite was often moored in the river at a spot visible from Payne’s estate and main house at Esopus. And there is a story of an event that happened in 1913 while the Aphrodite was moored there in the river. It seems that there was a steamer headed from Newburgh going to Albany and had struck a submerged rock near the Esopus Island just north of Payne’s estate. The captain of this steamer felt he would not make his destination safely and let the vessel drift down river where he pointed the vessel onto the eastern shore of the river and beached her. On the Aphrodite while at her moorings in the river was Captain Scott who had witnessed this event and lowered one of the Aphrodite’s boats and set out with several of his crew to help the stricken steamer. The passengers were taken to safety and Captain Scott brought then to the wharf at West Park. During the rescue, several of the ladies on the beached steamer had fainted from all the excitement and commotion. Captain Scott and his crew treated the rescued passengers to lunch and waited with them until the next Newburgh-Albany boat came along and the passengers resumed their travels.

USS Aphrodite photographed astern of another converted yacht while escorting a convoy during World War I.

By 1917, with failing health, Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne decided to join other American millionaires who were lending their yachts to the US Navy for the war effort. The Navy took possession of the Aphrodite on 11 May, 1917 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and there after began removing her luxurious interior, and her once brilliant white hull was painted gunmetal gray. While Payne had sailed her with a crew of between 55 and 60, she would now carry a crew of 128 officers and men, along with four 3-inch rapid firers, two machine guns, a Y-gun, and a large number of depth charges. No longer a wealthy man’s most prized possession, she was the USS Aphrodite, (SP-135) a United States man-of-war. Colonel Payne also offered several of his crew to the Navy to serve aboard and the navy accepted several of Payne’s crew. Captain Scott also served during the war as the executive officer under Lt. CMDR Craft.

On 14 June, 1917, nine days after her commissioning, USS Aphrodite sailed from New York Harbor under the command of Lt. Commander Ralph Payne Craft, U.S.N. as her first wartime navy commander. The Aphrodite was then escorting the first American convoy carrying the American Expeditionary Force to the battlefields in France.

Sadly, Colonel Payne would not live to see the return of his once glorious yacht, on June 27, one day before the convoy reached France, Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne died, leaving an estate that The New York Times estimated at $90 million. Three thousand miles away, Aphrodite and the other yachts were assigned to patrol and perform convoy escort duty on the Bay of Biscay, escorting coastwise convoys and meeting in-bound convoys from the United States and seeing them into the French ports of Brest, Le Verdon-sur-Mer, or St. Nazaire.

On 16 February , 1918, she was reassigned to the base located at Rochefort, France, from which she served as an offshore escort until March of 1918. On 28 March, 1918, Aphrodite was assigned to Division 7, Squadron 3, Patrol Force, based at Le Verdon-sur-Mer. She served as a convoy escort along the French coast for the remainder of the war. These converted yacht squadrons became known as the "Suicide Fleet", and still in other circles they also became known as the "Easter Egg Fleet." The moniker of "Suicide Fleet" has obvious meanings but the term "Easter Egg" came from the way these converted yachts were painted in the early parts of the war. The camouflage paint schemes of that day were quite vivid and likely took a bit of getting used to for the crews, over the traditional gray of a warship.

While serving in the war zone Lt. Commander Craft was re-assigned to the Battleship USS Pennsylvania, and Captain Frederick C. Billard, later Rear Admiral and Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, took command. When Billard was awarded the Navy Cross, his citation read, "for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Commanding Officer of the USS Aphrodite, engaged in the important, exacting, and hazardous duty of transporting and escorting troops and supplies through waters infested with enemy submarines and mines."

A few days after the Armistice, with Billard at the helm, Aphrodite left Brest, first for England, where she served as station ship in Harwich and Portland, England, and at Hamburg, Germany. Repaired after sustaining significant damage from an enemy mine when passing by the German island fortress of Helgoland, she was the first American ship to pass through the Kiel Canal, the 61-mile-Iong canal that links the North Sea at Brunsbuttel to the Baltic Sea at Kiel-Holtenau.

On 1 April, 1919 the following officers were serving aboard the ship under the command of Captain Frederick C. Billard, USCG:

Lt. J. G. V. Astor, Executive Officer, USNRF

Lt. (jg) J. O. Huse, USN

Lt. (jg) Huntington English, USNRF

Lt. (jg) H. F. Johnson, USN

Ensign R. Hammond, USNRF

Ensign Charles White II, USNRF

Ensign Charles H. Burton, USNRF

Lt. Paul T. Crosby, Medical Corps, USN

Lt. (jg) W. A. Marcus, Pay Corps, USNRF

Ensign Robert E. Burney, Pay Corps, USNRF

Ensign William M. Corliss, Pay Corps, USN

Officers who served aboard the Aphrodite during WWI:

Lt. (jg) Charles W. Scott, USNRF

Lt. (jg) Charles F. Fornason, USNRF

Ensign William H. Horkan, USNRF

Ensign G. Holmes, USNRF

Ensign A. C. Meyers, USNRF

Surgeon R. D. N. Jones, National Naval Volunteers

Assistant Surgeon Morton D. Willcutts, USN

USS Aphrodite returned from Europe to the New York Navy Yard on 29 June, 1919 where she was placed out of commission at the Fleet Supply Base, Brooklyn, NY, and on July 12 she was returned to her owner that same day.

Colonel Oliver Payne's favorite nephew, Payne Whitney, who'd received the bulk of his uncle's estate, took ownership of the Aphrodite. When the battle-scarred ship reached Brooklyn, she was decommissioned and her fighting equipment removed. Her buff-colored smokestack was painted with two gold chevrons – indicating her overseas service for her country – and on her bridge, a tablet was installed that contained a brief summation of her wartime activities. Sadly, she couldn't be returned to her original glory; the interior finishing’s so carefully removed two years earlier had been destroyed when the Long Island warehouse in which they had been stored burned.

In 1928, following the death of Payne Whitney, Aphrodite was sold to a Greek firm that used her for inter-island transport in the eastern Mediterranean. A draftsman who'd worked on her in 1899 captured the only known picture of Aphrodite after her purchase; it shows her war chevrons still painted on her smokestack. It was believed that she was still in service into the 1930's, but then she disappeared, an ignominious end for the glorious Maine-built ship once hailed as "America's most beautiful yacht." Mighty Aphrodite sailed through life as a party boat, a warship, and at last sighting, a lowly transport for hire.

See also

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Fairburn, William A. (1899). "Full Powered Sea-Going Steam Yacht Aphrodite For Col. Oliver H. Payne, Of New York". Marine Engineering. Aldrich & Donaldson. 3 (June 1899): 10–13. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
Sources
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.