Aramis (S.P. 418)
1917-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(S.P. 418: displacement 375; length 157'6" (overall), 153'6" (waterline); beam 22'4"; draft 7'6" (mean); speed 13.0 knots (maximum), 9.0 knots (cruising); complement 53; armament 2 6-pounders, 2 1-pounders, 2 Colt machine guns)
Aramis, a steel-hulled, twin-screw diesel yacht designed by Swasey, Raymond, & Page, naval architects, was completed in 1916 at City Island, N.Y., by Robert Jacob, for Arthur Hudson Marks, the vice president of the Goodrich Rubber Co., of Akron, Ohio. Equipped with one of the first marine diesel engines to be installed in an American yacht, Aramis came under the Navy's gaze soon after the United States entered the Great War [World War I].
The Navy acquired Aramis on 3 July 1917, "enrolled" her six days later, and accepted her on 11 August for service at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y.. Assigned the identification number S.P. 418, she was placed in commission there on 2 November 1917, Lt. John A. Jackson, USNRF, in command.
The next morning, Aramis proceeded, via Fort Lafayette, to her patrol station at the mouth of New York harbor, arriving at the net defenses that afternoon. She maintained watch there until the morning of 5 November 1917, noting the movement of other patrol craft and, at night, sweeping the net with her searchlight every 30 minutes. After her second tour at the net defenses on the 6th and 7th, she returned to moor at the pier at the foot of 24th Street, New York City, on the 8th. At 10:25 p.m. the following night, men on watch discovered a fire under the structure. Aramis immediately went to fire quarters, lowered a boat and sent it under the pier, paying out two lengths of fire hose, while she made ready to get underway to clear the pier if the need arose. By 2:40 a.m. on the 10th, during the mid watch, the blaze had been extinguished.
Returning to the nets later that day, she spotted a strange craft in a forbidden place. Aramis lowered her launch, under the command of her executive officer, Lt. (j.g.) Williams, USNRF, to give chase. Ultimately, that officer returned with the launch Kid, its occupants arrested for an intrusion into the net area off limits to private craft. A similar incident occurred over a week later when Aramis hailed a launch that crossed the net but did not stop. On that occasion, section patrol craft S.P. 1201 overtook the intruder, took her into custody, and towed her to Fort Lafayette.
Underway from the ordnance pier at Sandy Hook at 11:50 a.m. on 20 November 1917, bound for the Scotland and Ambrose Lightships, Aramis received orders by semaphore from the tug Cayuga to report forthwith to the New York Navy Yard. Arriving at 5:15 p.m. for further orders, Aramis shifted to the Jersey Central Railroad Pier the next morning where she was visited briefly by Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. After disembarking her distinguished guest, Aramis returned to the New York Navy Yard and shifted thence to the Marine Basin, Brooklyn, on the 24th.
Underway for New London, Conn., on the morning of 4 December 1917, Aramis reached that port the following morning. She provisioned there and then, on the afternoon of the 20th, proceeded to the marine railway of the Riverside Shipyard, Greenport, Long Island, N.Y. On the morning of the 22nd, the ship was hauled out for repairs and alterations, and the installation of a primitive underwater detection system. Shortly before midnight on 31 December 1917, a fire broke out in the machine shop adjoining the ways. Aramis' crew promptly turned to with extinguishers and axes to aid the yard force in fighting the blaze.
Off the ways on 9 January 1918, Aramis returned to New London soon thereafter. There, off Fort Trumbull, a launch from the cruiser Chicago, the flagship for the Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet, came alongside on the morning of 18 January bearing Lt. Cmdr. Chester W. Nimitz and a board of officers and civilians to test the recently installed listening apparatus fitted in Aramis. The yacht carried out further experimentation with the listening gear into February, when she was ordered back to the New York Navy Yard.
Casting off from the Public Dock, New London, at 10:43 a.m. on 7 February 1918, the ship was caught briefly in an ice floe two hours later. She made stops at New Haven, Conn., and at the Marine Basin, Brooklyn, before reaching the navy yard early on the 27th. Ordered to convoy the submarine L-5 (Submarine No. 44) to New London, Aramis got underway with her charge at 10:00 a.m. that same morning and escorted the boat on her voyage without incident, reaching their destination later the same day.
Underway the next morning to return to New York, Aramis struck submerged wreckage near Middle Ground Light, knocking off a blade of her port screw. As she continued onward she passed through "considerable wreckage" on the "steamer track" 10 miles east of Middle Ground Light, flotsom that included hatches and parts of heavy decking.
Aramis reached the Marine Basin late on the 28th and shifted to Seabury's Shipyard, Morris Heights, on 5 March 1918. She remained there into April undergoing repairs and shifted to the New York Navy Yard on the 9th. On 16 May, while the ship was at Section Base No. 6, Bath Beach, Brooklyn, Rear Adm. Nathaniel R. Usher, Commandant of the Third Naval District, and Capt. Louis de R. Steiguer inspected the ship. On 21 June, while the ship was undergoing a refit at Shewan's Shipyard, Brooklyn, Mr. Elmer A. Sperry, the inventor of the gyroscopic compass, came on board to work on one of his compasses that had been installed in the ship.
Underway from Shewan's yard on the afternoon of 27 June 1918, Aramis arrived at Section Base No. 6 later that day. On the 28th, she shifted to the Ammunition Depot at Fort Lafayette, and there took on board four Mk. I, Mod. 1 depth charges, the most primitive type of charge that required no fixed launcher, only a strong sailor to heave it over the side. Now equipped with listening gear and an antisubmarine capability, albeit primitive, Aramis returned to the business of patrolling the waters of the Third Naval District assigned her.
Aramis spent much of July 1918 engaged in training "listeners," operating out of Section Base No. 6. She also performed local convoy escort duties on 16 July and lay at a "listening post" the following day, apparently near the course of a convoy. Her regimen remained the same into August, and she spent the first few days of that month engaged in "listening" on station near Ambrose Lightship, alternating with Tarantula (S.P. 124) and Sabalo (S.P. 225), and the submarine chasers S.C.52, S.C. 53, and S.C. 56.
Underway from Section Base No. 6 at 11:57 a.m. on 12 August 1918, Aramis relieved S.C. 55 at the Fire Island lightship at 5:02 p.m. and commenced listening with her "K" tubes (the primitive listening gear) soon thereafter. Well over an hour later, at 6:45 p.m., Aramis came upon the captain and crew (30 souls all told) of the Norwegian steamer Sommerstad, three days out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, which had been torpedoed and sunk by U-117 (Kapitanleutnant Otto Dröscher in command) that morning. Picking up the Norwegian sailors and taking their boats in tow, Aramis headed back to port at 11:00 p.m.. Before sinking the Norwegian vessel, U-117,. on her maiden patrol, had, in just one day [10 August 1918] stopped and sunk ten U.S. motor fishing vessels, Aleda May, Cruiser, Earl & Nettie, Katie L. Palmer, Mary E. Sennett, Progress, Reliance, and William H. Starbuck.
After casting Somerstad's motor sailer, in a leaky condition, adrift, Aramis reached the Barge Office at the Battery, New York City, at 11:05 a.m. on the 13th, where the Norwegians were sent ashore to be aided by their consul. Underway again at 11:35 a.m. Aramis reached Section Base No. 6 at 12:45 a.m., her rescue mission completed. However, she did not tarry long before she got underway again for a patrol station soon thereafter. Unfortunately, at 6:30 p.m. that afternoon, Aramis rammed Preble (Coast Torpedo Vessel No. 12), causing the latter to miss the sailing of a convoy, but suffered no damage herself.
While returning to her section base at 3:55 p.m. the next day, Aramis' forward lookout spotted what looked like a floating spar about 300 yards off the starboard bow. Ens. George Dumars, USNRF, the officer of the deck, managed to obtain a quick glimpse of it before it vanished abeam. Immediately upon the disappearance of the "waterlogged spar," Aramis was brought dead in the water and her listening gear was placed in operation. The man listening reported that he heard submarine engines. Within five minutes, the commanding officer, Ens. Leroy W. Tilt, USNRF, was on the bridge and called all hands to general quarters.
Reporting the presence of a submarine to district headquarters, Aramis bent on speed and came about. Putting over the "K" tube, she detected the presence of a submarine and maintained close watch. At 5:15 p.m., the patrol craft spotted Hauoli (S.P. 249), standing up from the eastward, about seven miles south. After her attempts to reach that vessel by radio failed, Aramis fired a blank charge to attract Hauoli's attention, and that patrol boat came alongside at 6:00 p.m. Unfortunately, Hauoli's approach "gummed the listening device to such an extent as to drown all other sounds," enabling the submarine-as everyone believed it was-to slip away in the resulting turbulence. Aramis, with Hauoli standing by, then headed for the spot the submarine last had been seen and, during the next quarter hour dropped her four Mk. I depth charges, one by one. Unfortunately, none of the four worked.
Subsequently shifting from Base No. 6 to the Marine Basin at Brooklyn, where she took on board a pair of depth charges from Shubrick (Coast Torpedo Boat No. 31), Aramis relieved the converted yacht Gloucester on patrol duty on 18 August 1918 before returning to the Marine Basin for the installation of new wireless telephones. She proceeded to her section base on the 25th, only to move over to Shewan's Shipyard on the 27th.
No logs exist for Aramis' activities over the next four months, but message traffic reveals some facts about her operations. She was detached from the Third Naval District on 18 September for use as a division commander flagship and was directed to proceed to Base Two (Yorktown, Va.) and report to Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet. However, Aramis' chronic engine trouble delayed her departure until 6 October 1918, when the yacht finally sailed unescorted.
What followed for the next month and a half, during which the armistice ended the fighting of World War I, is not certain; but, on 22 November 1918, Rear Adm. Thomas Washington, Commander, Battleship Division 3, Atlantic Fleet, assumed command of his division and broke his flag in Aramis. Unfortunately, Aramis' history of engine trouble again proved her undoing. The message traffic indicates that she proved to be unsuitable for her new task; and, on 3 December, Owera (S.P. 167) was ordered to proceed to relieve Aramis as flagship for the Commander of Battleship Division 3.
Detached on 12 December 1918, Aramis was assigned temporary duty at the Submarine Base, New London. Upon the arrival of Yacona (S.P. 617), Aramis was directed to proceed to Commander, Submarine Base, New London. Aramis' subsequent movements appear to have elicited considerable interest within the Third and Fourth Naval Districts, since at one point nobody knew for sure where she was. Limping into Lewes, Delaware, on the afternoon of 20 December, five days before Christmas, Aramis finally reached New London by the end of the year, since when her log resumed on 1 January 1919, she was at that port, moored at Dock "D", Submarine Base.
Although detached from duty at New London on 17 March 1919, Aramis did not get underway until the morning of 1 April and reached New York the following morning, anchoring in the familiar waters off Section Base No. 6.
Aramis shifted to pier "A", the Battery, on the afternoon of 6 April 1919, and, the following morning at 1005, embarked Rear Adm. Guy H. Burrage, and a party that included Mrs. William S. Sims and the Sims' children, Margaret, Adeline, and William, Jr., to await the triumphal return from Europe of Rear Adm. William S. Sims, the former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Operating in European Waters. Underway at 10:40 a.m., the yacht proceeded down the harbor. The passage toward the reunion of the admiral and his family, however, came within a hairsbreadth of disaster.
At 11:00 a.m., Aramis sighted a British freighter on a converging course and obligingly swung to the right side of the shipping channel as far as was practicable in order to give the merchantman the advantage of deeper water. Aramis blew one whistle signal and maintained her course and speed, but the steamer did not show any intention of slowing down and bore down on the yacht. Lt. (j.g.) Tilt, in making his protest over the handling of the British merchantman, reported what followed: "The steamer ... in going under our stern came so close that had the Aramis not thrown the wheel hard over left a collision would have occurred . . . ."
Aramis resumed her harbor cruise soon thereafter, and the rest proceeded without further incident. She moored alongside the British Cunard line Mauretania at 4:00 p.m. and soon embarked her distinguished passenger, Admiral Sims. Docking at Pier "A" a little under an hour later, she disembarked the reunited family and the other dignitaries who had been on board and returned to her section base soon thereafter.
Aramis remained in the New York area into the summer. She cruised to New London and back in late July before receiving orders, dated 9 August 1919, sending her to the Potomac River as the prospective relief for Sylph.
Departing New York on 8 September 1919, Aramis reached the Washington Navy Yard on 13 September and remained there, being assigned duty, along with Nokomis (S.P. 609) as a "Navy Department tender." On 24 October, orders arrived directing the ships to sail for the New York Navy Yard to undergo conversion. Returning to the New York Navy Yard on 10 November 1919, Aramis remained there for the rest of the year 1919 and for the entire year 1920, retained in commission but inactive. During this sojourn in Brooklyn, she was classified as a "patrol vessel, converted yacht," PY-7, on 17 July 1920.
Early the following year, it had been thought that Aramis would ultimately relieve Sylph, but the cost of necessary work to the former apparently caused a rethinking of the idea, and it was accordingly dropped between March and June 1921. The Chief of Naval Operations subsequently directed the Commandant of the Third Naval District on 3 September 1921 to place Aramis out of commission "as soon as is practicable...with a view toward the eventual recommissioning of this vessel." Accordingly, on 6 October 1921, Aramis (PY-7) was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard.
Towed by the fleet tug luka (AT-37), Aramis reached the reserve basin at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 9 October 1923 and remained inactive until redesignated as a "District Craft, Unclassified," in late 1924. She was then slated to serve as a tender and houseboat to Nokomis (PY-6), which was being assigned to survey duty off the coast of Cuba. Assigned to the Seventh Naval District, Aramis was towed to Key West, Fla., by Bay Spring (AT-60) in December 1924.
For the next nine years, the yacht remained in operation in that fashion, kept in repair by the ship's force of Nokomis as that ship conducted important surveys ranging from Cardenas in the northern and northeastern coastline of Cuba. Finally, after she had deteriorated to the point where she was unfit for further naval service, Aramis was placed on the list of naval vessels to be disposed of by sale or salvage. Stripped of all useful items at the Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by mid-July 1933, Aramis was stricken from the Navy Register on 20 July 1933.
She was sold to R. E. O'Fallon of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 13 November 1933. Her ultimate fate is unknown.
Robert J. Cressman
27 October 2023
