Name USS Helvetia Completed 1905 Commissioned 19 July 1918 Length 48 m | Namesake Previous name retained Acquired 19 July 1918 Fate Sold February 1919 Builder I. L. Snow & Company | |
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USS Helvetia (SP-3096) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1918 to 1919.
Helvetia was built as a civilian three-masted schooner of the same name in 1905 by I. L. Snow & Company at Rockland, Maine. The U.S. Navy inspected her in July 1918 for possible naval service and purchased her on 19 July 1918 from R. K. Snow for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned the same day at Norfolk, Virginia, as USS Helvetia (SP-3096).
Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Helvetia initially was deployed as a decoy ship teamed with a U.S Navy submarine following her during antisubmarine patrols off the United States East Coast. It was hoped that her innocent appearance would lure unsuspecting German submarines to the surface to attack her with gunfire, allowing the submerged U.S. Navy submarine nearby to torpedo and sink them. However, Helvetia never encountered a German submarine.
Helvetia later served as a stores ship and mother ship for submarines at Norfolk until November 1918. She then was transferred to New London, Connecticut, for similar duties there with the submarine force of the United States Atlantic Fleet.
The Navy sold Helvetia back to R. K. Snow in February 1919.