USS Siren (PY-13)

USS Siren (PY-13), briefly CMc-1, was built by Pusey and Jones, Wilmington, Delaware and launched 15 November 1929 as the yacht Lotosland. The yacht was acquired by the United States Navy in October 1940 and placed in commission as a Patrol Yacht from 1940 to 1946.

USS Siren (PY-13), July 1943.
History
 United States
Name: Lotosland (1929–1940)
Owner: Colonel Edward A. Deeds
Builder: Pusey and Jones, Wilmington, Delaware
Yard number: 408
Laid down: 13 June 1929
Launched: 15 November 1929
Completed: 14 June 1930 (delivered)
Identification:
History
United States
Name: Siren (1940–1945)
Namesake: Siren
Cost: $140,000
Acquired: 16 October 1940
Commissioned: 19 July 1940
Decommissioned: 2 May 1944
Renamed: Siren, 12 November 1940
Reclassified: Patrol Yacht, PY-13, 15 November 1940
Refit: 31 October 1940, General Ship and Engine Works, East Boston, Massachusetts
In service: 2 May 1944, Naval Training School (Salvage), Pier 88, New York
Out of service: 23 October 1945
Stricken: 3 November 1945
Identification:
Fate: Sold, 31 December 1946, sold foreign, Colombian flag, by 1950
General characteristics [1][2]
Type:
  • Yacht (1929–1940)
  • Coastal Minelayer (1940)
  • Patrol Yacht (1940–1945)
Tonnage: 662 GRT, 337 Net
Displacement: 720 long tons (732 t)
Length:
  • 196 ft 5 in (59.87 m) (overall)
  • 185 ft (56 m) (registry)
Beam:
  • 26.1 ft (8.0 m) (registered)
  • 28 ft 2 in (8.59 m) (DANFS)[note 1]
Draft: 11 ft (3.4 m)
Depth: 14.2 ft (4.3 m)
Installed power:
Propulsion: 2 × screw
Speed: 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph)
Range: 12,000 nmi (14,000 mi; 22,000 km)
Crew:
  • 35 (yacht)
  • 89 (Navy)
Armament:

Construction

Lotosland, a yacht designed by the yacht design firm of Cox & Stevens and built in 1929 by Pusey and Jones of Wilmington, Delaware for Edward A. Deeds.[note 2] The yacht's keel was laid 13 June 1929 as yard hull 408, contract 1043, and launched 15 November 1929.[3][4][5] Deed's friend Orville Wright attended the launch ceremony.[6] On 14 June 1930 the yacht was delivered to be registered with U.S. Official Number 229875 and signal MHWN.[1][4]

Yacht Lotosland

Lotosland was constructed of steel with clipper bow and transom stern with two pole masts and stack placed approximately amidships. A continuous deck house on the main deck contained a dining room forward with an inside passage running through the pantry to the library and a music and living room. Aft of the deck house a clear deck 40 ft (12.2 m) in length by 20 ft (6.1 m) wide suitable for dancing and other entertainment. Above was an unusually large bridge deck housing in which there were two staterooms with private baths for the owner and his wife designed for use in tropical cruising. Seven staterooms were on the berth deck, accessed from the main deck living room above by stairs. In addition to the two for the owner were five for guests. The spaces were air conditioned by early devices called Room Coolers hidden behind decorative grill work. Woodwork was teak and black walnut. Fireplaces were marble.[7][8][9][10] Lotosland, even as a civilian yacht, was armed. In addition to trap shooting facilities on the stern the yacht was equipped with a one-pounder gun and a machine gun.[11]

The steel yacht was unusual in that an organ, specially designed to resist dampness, was installed. The nine ranks of 549 pipes were installed in a special compartment on the berth deck, an area normally used for a stateroom, and the organ was installed above in the living room aft on the main deck.[7][8][12]

An even more unusual feature for the time was capability to carry and handle an amphibious aircraft. The plane was carried on deck on the top of the after deck house and handled by a boom on the main mast. The references note the aircraft as a Loening; however, the actual aircraft was a Sikorsky S-39A four place amphibian.[7][8][13] The original airplane was dropped as it was being lifted aboard and destroyed. It was replaced the next day by the Sikorsky.[14]

Two six cylinder, 500 horsepower Winton diesel engines capable of a cruising speed of 12.5 kn (14.4 mph; 23.2 km/h) and a top speed of 14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h) with fuel capacity for 12,000 nmi (14,000 mi; 22,000 km) at crusing speed.[7][8]

Lotosland was purchased from Col. Edward A. Deeds on 16 October 1940 for use as a coastal minesweeper and was renamed Siren (CMc-1). On 15 November 1940, she was commissioned and redesignated a patrol yacht, PY-13.[2]

Siren was converted for military use at the General Engineering & Ship Works yards in Neponset, Mass. Her conversion completed by mid-March. Siren reported on the 18th for duty to the Commandant of the 1st Naval District.[2]

Service history

From her home yard, Boston, she patrolled the New England coast from Eastport, Maine, to Block Island, Rhode Island. For almost a year, from March 1941 until February 1942, Siren served with the Inshore Patrol, at first on Neutrality Patrol and then, after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and Germany's declaration of war on the following day, in the actual defense of the United States shoreline.[2]

On 10 February 1942, Siren was reassigned to the Eastern Sea Frontier. This change was part of the Navy's response to the German submarine offensive of 1942 which was centered in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. During this and her next assignment-to the Commander, Atlantic Fleet-from December 1942 until April 1944, Siren patrolled and escorted convoys along the southeastern coast of the United States and between the islands of the Caribbean. Her duties during these two assignments carried her to such places as Trinidad, Jamaica, Cuba, and Key West. On one occasion, she even ventured as far south as Recife, Brazil. During this period, Siren rescued survivors of a U-boat sunk by a Navy PBY patrol plane.[2]

After a short period assigned to the 7th Naval District at Key West, Florida, in April 1944, she was transferred to the 3d Naval District at New York City for duty at the Naval Training School (Salvage). Siren was decommissioned at New York on 2 May 1944 and was placed in service. She served at the Naval Training School (Salvage) until 3 March 1945, when she sailed for temporary duty in the 8th Naval District at Orange, Texas. On 3 October 1945, she arrived at Tompkinsville, New York, to begin preparing for lay-up; and she was placed out of service there on 23 October 1945. Siren was struck from the Navy list on 13 November 1945 and turned over to the War Shipping Administration for disposal. She was sold on 13 August 1946.[2]

Sale

The vessel was sold 31 December 1946 for $12,100 and in 1950 is shown as sold foreign with flag being Colombian.[15][16]

Footnotes
  1. Difference in measurement basis probably accounts for beam difference.
  2. Deeds was an electrical engineer and industrialist. His industrial connectins included the National Cash Register Company, the Dayton Engineering Laboratories (DELCO), a founder along with Orville Wright of the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company, Pratt & Whitney, and the U.S. Army as Chief of Aircraft Production.

References
  1. Merchant Vessels of the United States, 1931. Washington, D.C.: Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Navigation. 1931. pp. 820–821. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  2. Naval History And Heritage Command (September 9, 2015). "Siren III (PY-13)". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  3. Pusey & Jones Corp. (4 March 1930). "Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Deeds and daughter. Contract 1043". Hagley Museum & Library. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  4. Pacific American Steamship Association; Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast (August 1930). "The Pusey & Jones Corp". Pacific Marine Review. San Francisco: J.S. Hines. Retrieved 23 October 2020.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. Colton, Tim (September 12, 2014). "Pusey & Jones, Wilmington DE". ShipbuildingHistory. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  6. Renstrom, Arthur George (September 2003). Wilbur & Orville Wright (PDF). Monographs in Aerospace History. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. p. 49. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  7. "The Diesel Yacht Lotosland". MotorBoating. February 1931. pp. 90–91. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  8. Pacific American Steamship Association; Shipowners Association of the Pacific Coast (August 1929). "Diesel Yacht Lotosland". Pacific Marine Review. San Francisco: J.S. Hines: 29. Retrieved 23 October 2020.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. Basile, Salvatore (2014). Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 9780823261765. LCCN 2014941036. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  10. Carr, Ken (2008). "Did You Know . . " (PDF). NCR Retiree News. Germantown, Ohio: NCR REA, Inc. 12 (3): 3. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  11. Pila, O. R. (14 December 1934). "Home Port of Seven Seas". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: 21. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  12. "Yacht Organ" (PDF). The Core Memory Project. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  13. "Private Yacht Carries its Own Amphibian". Popular Aviation. Vol. 7 no. 2. Chicago: Aeronautical Publications, Inc. September 1930. p. 24. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  14. "S38" (PDF). NEAM News. Windsor Locks, Ct.: New England Air Museum. Fall 1994. p. 4. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  15. Appendix II — Vessels Containing Pig Lead Ballast (Report). United States. Congress. Senate. 5 August 1948. p. 25. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  16. Merchant Vessels of the United States, 1950. Washington, D.C.: Treasury Department, Bureau of Customs. 1950. p. 929. Retrieved 24 October 2020.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

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