USS Edithena

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
motor yacht
, underway sometime between 1914 and 1917.
History
United States
NameEdithena
OwnerLoring Q. White, BostonMassachusetts (1914)
Builder
Bronx, New York
Launched1914
Sponsored byMiss Adena White
Completed1914
HomeportBuzzards Bay, Massachusetts
FateSold to U.S. Navy June 1917
United States Navy
NameUSS Edithena
NamesakePrevious name retained
Cost
US$
17,000
AcquiredJune 1917
Commissioned20 June 1917 or August 1917
Stricken21 October 1919
FateTransferred to the
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
NameUSFS Widgeon
Namesake
Widgeon, a group of birds in the genus Mareca in the subfamily Anatinae
, known as dabbling ducks
AcquiredOctober 1919
Identification
FateTransferred to Fish and Wildlife Service 30 June 1940
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
NameUS FWS Widgeon
NamesakePrevious name retained
Acquired30 June 1940
FateTransferred to U.S. Navy 1942
AcquiredTransferred from U.S. Navy 1944
Fate
United States Navy
NameUSS YP-200
Acquired1942
Commissioned1942
Stricken29 July 1944
FateTransferred to Fish and Wildlife Service 1944
United States
NameEdithena
NamesakePrevious name restored
AcquiredBy 1947
HomeportSeattleWashington
United States
NameIla Mae
HomeportAnacortes, Washington
FateExtant 1986
NotesFishing vessel; registered 1970–1986
General characteristics (as motor yacht)
Type
Motor yacht
Length75 ft (22.9 m)
Propulsion2 x ≈50–65 
gasoline engines
Speed
  • 13 mph (21 km/h) (trials)
  • 12 mph (19 km/h) (average)
  • 10–12 mph (16–19 km/h) (cruising)
Boats & landing
craft carried
Crew6
General characteristics (as U.S. Navy patrol boat)
TypePatrol boat
Length75 ft (22.9 m)
Beam15 ft (4.6 m)
Draft4 ft (1.2 m)
Propulsion2 x ≈50–65 hp (37–48 kW) 570 rpm Speedway
gasoline engines
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement11
Armament1 × 1-pounder gun
General characteristics (as BOF fishery patrol boat)
TypeFishery patrol boat
Tonnage15 GRT
Lengthca. 68 ft (20.7 m) (sources vary)
Beam15 ft (4.6 m)
Draft3.75 ft (1.1 m)
Propulsion2 x ≈50–65 hp (37–48 kW) 570 rpm Speedway
gasoline engines
Speed9–12 knots (17–22 km/h; 10–14 mph)

USS Edithena was a

United States Bureau of Fisheries from 1919 to 1940 and as US FWS Widgeon in the fleet of the Fish and Wildlife Service from 1940 to 1942. During World War II, she returned to U.S. Navy service from 1942 to 1944 as the yard patrol boat USS YP-200. By 1947 she had returned to private ownership, first as Edithena and during the 1970s and 1980s as the fishing vessel
Ila Mae.

Construction, characteristics, and private use

Edithena was built as a private

Pullman berths, and accommodation forward for a crew of six.[2] She carried two boats, a 15-foot (4.6 m) tender and a 12-foot (3.7 m) dinghy.[2]

patrol vessel USS Edithena (SP-624), moored in Boston, Massachusetts
, ca. 1918 (right).

Edithena was

Miami, Florida, area during the winter season.[2]

U.S. Navy, 1917–1919

The

1st Naval District and based at Boston, Massachusetts, Edithena conducted patrol duty off northern New England
through the end of World War I on 11 November 1918 and into 1919.

Under an

United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF).[4] Edithena was stricken from the Navy List
on 21 October 1919 and transferred to the BOF.

U.S. Bureau of Fisheries

USFS Widgeon in 1924.

After the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) renamed the vessel USFS Widgeon,

Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, Widgeon was loaded aboard the U.S. Navy cargo ship USS Gold Star.[3] Gold Star departed Norfolk, Virginia, on 22 April 1922 bound for the Pacific Northwest and delivered Widgeon to Seattle, Washington.[3]

At Seattle, Widgeon underwent modifications for BOF service as a

patrol vessel in the waters off the Territory of Alaska.[3] After their completion, she departed Seattle in August 1922 to begin patrol duties off Southeast Alaska.[3] At some point over the next 12 months, United States Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover embarked aboard Widgeon as part of President Warren G. Harding's travelling party during a visit by Harding to the Territory of Alaska.[3] In 1924, Widgeon′s engines were rebuilt,[3] and in 1928, her patrol duties expanded to include the protection of the fur seal population in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.[3]

Widgeon was out of service during July 1929 while her engines underwent repairs, and that month

Juneau Fire Department extinguished the blaze.[3]

USFS Widgeon (in right background) ca. 1938, photographed with men brailing salmon from a floating fish trap in the foreground.

When Widgeon arrived in Alaskan waters, her

cutless bearings that relieved her crew of this frequent maintenance requirement.[3] Widgeon underwent an extensive overhaul in Seattle during the winter of 1931–1932.[3]

Fish and Wildlife Service

In 1939, the BOF was transferred from the United States Department of Commerce to the United States Department of the Interior,[5] and on 30 June 1940, it was merged with the Interior Department's Division of Biological Survey to form the new Fish and Wildlife Service,[6] an element of the Interior Department destined to become the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1956.[7] The vessel thus became part of the FWS fleet as US FWS Widgeon.

U.S. Navy, 1942–1944

The U.S. Navy acquired Widgeon in 1942 for

Thirteenth Naval District Inshore Patrol, as of 15 May 1942 she was based at Section Base, Port Townsend in Port Townsend, Washington.[8] In Navy service, YP-200 became a radar picket boat.[3]

The Navy struck YP-200 from the

Navy list on 29 July 1944.[9] Presumably she was transferred back to the Fish and Wildlife Service after her World War II Navy service ended, but the FWS last listed Kittiwake as part of its FWS fleet during Fiscal Year 1944, which ran from 1 July 1943 to 30 June 1944.[3]
Kittiwake therefore apparently did not return to active service with the FWS after her World War II Navy career ended.

Later career

By 1947, the vessel had reverted to her original name, Edithena, and was under private ownership with her home port at Seattle.[3] From 1970 to 1986, she was in service as a fishing vessel with the name Ila Mae and her home port at Anacortes, Washington.[3]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, Merchant Vessels of the United States (Including Yachts and Government Vessels), Year Ended June 30, 1933, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1932, pp. 151, 1131.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anonymous, "Edithena---A Twin Screw 75-Footer," Power Boating, July 1914, pp. 37–38 Retrieved August 20, 2019
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x NOAA Fisheries Alaska Science Fisheries Center AFSC Historical Corner: Widgeon, World War I Boat
  4. ^ NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center "AFSC Historical Corner: Petrel and Merganser, World War I Boats"
  5. ^ "Fisheries Historical Timeline: Historical Highlights 1930's". NOAA Fisheries Service: Northeast Fisheries Science Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 16, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  6. ^ "Fisheries Historical Timeline: Historical Highlights 1940's". NOAA Fisheries Service: Northeast Fisheries Science Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 16, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  7. ^ "Fisheries Historical Timeline: Historical Highlights 1950's". NOAA Fisheries Service: Northeast Fisheries Science Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 16, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  8. ^ a b Bruhn, p. 75.
  9. ^ Bruhn, p. 281.

Bibliography

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

  • Bruhn, David D. Battle Stars for the "Cactus Navy": America's Fishing Vessels and Yachts in World War II. Berwyn Heights, Maryland: Heritage Books 2014.

External links