From "Splinter Fleet" to Easy Street: One Vessel's Journey as a World War I Subchaser and Pleasure Craft

Summary

Though maintaining a neutral stance in the early part of World War I, German U-boat attacks in American waters in 1916 spurred the U.S. Navy to develop a specialized fleet of anti-submarine watercraft. Dubbed "subchasers," these small but remarkably long-range ships played an important role as a deterrent to the U-boat incursion. Purpose-built subchasers were primarily wooden-hulled; however, steel-hulled vessels were donated to the war effort due to wartime shortages. One such vessel, SC-144, was a steam-propelled pleasure yacht likely donated to the U.S. Navy for conversion. After the war ended, the vessel was decommissioned and re-purposed once again as a pleasure craft named Dispatch. After sinking in 1928 near the St. Marks Lighthouse in Florida, the wreck was salvaged for scrap during World War II. Vessels such as SC-144/Dispatch demonstrate how wartime innovations are made in response to new threats and the efforts to repurpose these valuable ships post-war.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• To "Hazard a Turbulent Sea:" Marine Archaeology in the Gulf of Mexico--Examining 500 Years of Exploration and Exploitation   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 730