USS Nahma (SP-771)

History
Name: USS Nahma
Builder: Clydebank Engine and Shipbuilding Company, Glasgow, Scotland previously known as J. and G. Thomson[1]
Launched: 1897
Commissioned: 27 August 1917
Decommissioned: 19 July 1919
Fate: Returned to owner
General characteristics
Displacement: 2,900 long tons (2,947 t)
Length: 319 ft (97 m)
Beam: 36 ft 6 in (11.13 m)
Draft: 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Speed: 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement: 162
Armament:
  • 2 × 5 in (130 mm) guns
  • 2 × 3 in (76 mm) guns
  • 2 × machine guns

USS Nahma (SP-771), an armed yacht, was built by the Clydebank Engine and SB Co., Glasgow, Scotland in 1897 for Robert Goelet; acquired by the United States Navy on free lease from his son, Robert Walton Goelet on 21 June 1917 for use as a section patrol vessel and commissioned on 27 August 1917, Lt. Comdr. E. Friedrick in command. Nahma was the sister ship to USS Mayflower (PY-1) that was built at the same time on the Clyde for Ogden Goelet, brother of Robert Sr.[2]

Soon after fitting out and shakedown, Nahma reported to Gibraltar to join a group of American vessels based there and serving as convoy escorts. With these ships, she escorted vessels in the Mediterranean, as well as between the UK and Gibraltar until the end of World War I. Following the Armistice she remained in the Mediterranean for relief and quasi-diplomatic work. Operating in the Aegean and Black Seas she carried relief supplies to refugee areas; evacuated American nationals, non-combatants, the sick, and the wounded from civil war torn areas of Russia and Turkey; and provided communications services between ports. She was decommissioned at Greenock, Scotland, on 19 July 1919, and was returned to her owner.

Rum running

Nahma was later sold, renamed Istar and registered under the British flag. During the prohibition years she became part of the illicit rum running fleet off the Virginia Capes, bringing Scotch whisky and organized by Sir Brodrick Hartwell.[3] [4] Istar was later converted by Alfred Ehrenreich for use as a shark processing factory ship.[3] She was scuttled 7km of the Durban Harbour, South Africa on March 28, 1931.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "Clydebank Engineering and Shipbuilding Co". Grace's Guide. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  2. ↑ Hofman, Erik (1970). The Steam Yachts - An Era of Elegance. New York: John De Graff Inc. pp. 100–103.
  3. 1 2 Hofman, Erik (1970). The Steam Yachts - An Era of Elegance. New York: John De Graff Inc. p. 103.
  4. ↑ "Director Visiting Rum Fleet". The Pittsburgh Gazette Times. April 20, 1923. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
  5. ↑ Shipwreck Database (Compiled from: Levine 1986; Turner 1988). "Underwater Heritage: Shipwreck Database:" (PDF). South African Heritage Resources Agency, (SAHRA). Retrieved 27 August 2017.
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