USS Helianthus explained

USS Helianthus (SP-585) was a patrol vessel in commission in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919, seeing service in World War I. After her U.S. Navy service, she was in commission in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey as the survey launch USC&GS Helianthus from 1919 to 1939. She was named after the Helianthus, the genus to which the sunflower belongs.^[1]

Construction

Helianthus was designed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff and built by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company as a power yacht at Bristol, Rhode Island.^[2] Helianthus, yard number 288, official number 210121, was launched on 17 June 1912.^{[3] [4]} Registry information for 1913 shows the yacht with home port of Bristol, gasoline powered at 50 indicated horsepower, with signal letters LCKT,, registered length, breadth, depth with a crew, excluding master, of three.^[5] The yacht was powered by a Sterling Model B, 6 cylinder, 75 horsepower gasoline engine with a, three bladed propeller.^[3]

United States Navy service, 1917–1919

The U.S. Navy acquired Helianthus from her owner, N. A. Herreshoff, on 11 June 1917 for World War I service as a patrol vessel and commissioned her on 6 July 1917 as USS Helianthus (SP-585).^[2]

Helianthus was assigned to section patrol duty in the 2nd Naval District in southern New England during World War I. She operated on harbor patrol and harbor entrance patrol in Narragansett Bay and at Newport, Rhode Island.^[2]

Helianthus collided with the fishing vessel T.H.C. on 12 June 1918 off Warren, Rhode Island. The owner of T.H.C., the Warren Oyster Company, filed for $3,840.56 in damages, but was granted only $50.00 in compensation by the United States Congress.^{[6] [7]}

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey service, 1919–1939

The U.S. Navy transferred Helianthus to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey on 28 March 1919.^[8] Commissioned as USC&GS Helianthus, she served as a survey launch during her years with the Coast and Geodetic Survey, conducting hydrographic survey work primarily in the waters of the Territory of Alaska.^[9]

After undergoing repairs, Helianthus began survey operations. Her first survey season was in 1920, during which she served along with another former U.S. Navy section patrol boat, USC&GS Scandinavia, and a 301NaN1 launch as a tender to the survey ship USC&GS Explorer in triangulation, topographic and hydrographic surveys in Stephens Passage in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska.^[10]

The Coast and Geodetic Survey sold Helianthus in 1939, and her subsequent fate is unknown.^[11] The Survey replaced her in 1940 with the survey vessel USC&GS Lester Jones (ASV-79).^[12]

External links

• Helianthus July 8, 1914. Off Newport during Trial of Cup Defenders. (Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection)
• Helianthus I ca. 1915. (Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection)
• Construction plan (Herreshoff Marine Museum Collection)
  • NavSource Online: Patrol Yacht Photo Archive: USC&GS Helianthus ex-USS (SP 585)
• NOAA History, A Science Odyssey: Tools of the Trade: Ships: Coast and Geodetic Survey Ships: Helianthus

Notes and References

1. Sunset Western Garden Book. Leisure Arts. 1995. pp. 606–607.
2. Web site: Helianthus (S. P. 585). www.history.navy.mil. 6 November 2016.
3. Web site: van der Linde . Claas . HMCo #288p Helianthus I . The Herreshoff Catalogue Raisonné . 2019 . 16 August 2019.
4. Web site: Colton . Tim . Herreshoff Manufacturing, Bristol RI . ShipbuildingHistory . December 18, 2015 . 16 August 2019.
5. Book: 1913 . Forty-Fifth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Year ended June 30, 1913 . Washington, D.C. . Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Navigation . 194 . 17 August 2019.
6. Book: Congressional Edition, Volume 7645. 1919. U.S. Government Printing Office. University of California.
7. A message was sent to the United States House of Representatives saying:

   The Speaker of the House of Representatives responded, writing:

8. Book: Silverstone. Paul. The New Navy, 1883–1922. 2013 . Routledge . 9781135865436. 217.
9. Web site: NOAA History – Tools of the Trade/Ships/C&GS Ships/HELIANTHUS. www.history.noaa.gov. 6 November 2016.
10. Annual Report Of the Director, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey to the Secretary of Commerce for the Fiscal Year Ended . 1920 . U.S. Government Printing Office . Washington, D.C. . 95.
11. Web site: Helianthus (SP 585). www.navsource.org. 6 November 2016.
12. The Motor Vessel E. Lester Jones . Field Engineers Bulletin . December 1939. 12 . 40–41 . United States Coast and Geodetic Survey . 16 August 2019.