Helvetia (Id.No. 3096)
1918-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(Id.No. 3096: displacement 499; length 157'4"; beam 36'2''; draft 12'; complement 34)
Helvetia, a wooden-hulled, three-masted schooner built at Rockland, Maine, by I. L. Snow & Co., and launched in 1905, was purchased by the Navy from her owner, R. K. Snow. She was taken over and simultaneously commissioned on 18 July 1918 at Norfolk, Va.
Initially assigned to the Fifth Naval District, Helvetia acted as a stores and mother ship for submarines at Norfolk until November 1918, when she was transferred to New London for duty with the Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet.
Helvetia was repurchased by her former owners in February 1919.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
10 September 2020
