Lyndonia (S.P. 734)
1917-1919
The Navy retained the name of this vessel when she was acquired.
(S.P. 734: tonnage 276 (gross) registered; length 175'; beam 20'4"; draft 7'9"; speed 15 knots; complement 69; armament 1 3-inch, 1 6‑pounder, 2 machine guns)
Lyndonia (S.P. 734) was built at Morris Heights, N.Y. by Gas Engine & Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co., in 1907; purchased by the Navy from her owner, Cyrus H. K. Curtis, on 5 September 1917; and commissioned at Philadelphia, Pa., on 4 December 1917, Lt. Cmdr. John J. McCracken in command.
Lyndonia departed for Bermuda on 22 December 1917 but engineering problems diverted her to Norfolk, Va., where she arrived on Christmas Day (25 December). She remained there for the next four months and served as a dispatch and mail boat in Chesapeake Bay. Renamed Vega on 20 February 1918, she steamed to Philadelphia (22-23 April) and began duty with patrol boats of the Fourth Naval District.
During the next six months Vega patrolled the lower reaches of Delaware Bay and waters off Cape May, N.J. She escorted submarines 0‑6 (Submarine No. 67) and 0‑9 (Submarine No. 70) to New York City, to 7 October, returned to Cape May the 10th, and between 13 and 14 October escorted 0‑3 (Submarine No. 64), 0‑4 (Submarine No. 65), and 0‑7 (Submarine No. 68) to the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Assigned to the Fifth Naval District on 28 October 1918, Vega arrived at Annapolis, Md., on the 31st. Until 5 December 1918 she trained midshipmen from the U.S. Naval Academy, thence she steamed, via Norfolk and Key West, to Pensacola, Fla., for duty with the Eighth Naval District. Vega patrolled waters of the Gulf Coast from 22 December 1918 to 21 March 1919. Between 22 March and 4 April she returned to Philadelphia where she resumed duty in the Fourth Naval District. Vega was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 13 September 1919 and was sold on 20 December 1921.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
6 April 2022
