|
USS ''Arabia'' (ID-3434) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission during 1918. ''Arabia'' was built as a commercial fishing schooner of the same name in 1903 at Essex, Massachusetts. With World War I raging, the German submarine ''U-117'' created havoc with the New England commercial fishing fleet during the summer of 1918, and the U.S. Navy acquired ''Arabia'' on 13 August 1918 from the Commonwealth Fisheries Company for use as a decoy ship in antisubmarine operations against ''U-117''. She was assigned the naval registry identification number 3434 and commissioned on 14 August 1918 at Boston, Massachusetts, as USS ''Arabia'' (ID-3434) with Lieutenant, junior grade, Lester F. Rogers in command. The concept behind the use of ''Arabia'' as a decoy ship was for her to deploy into ''U-117''s presumed operating area teamed with a U.S Navy submarine, which would follow her. It was hoped that her innocent appearance would lure ''U-117'' to the surface to attack her with gunfire, allowing the submerged U.S. Navy submarine nearby to torpedo and sink the German submarine. In addition to a Navy crew of two officers and seven enlisted men, 19 fishermen - 16 of them from ''Arabia''s original crew — were recruited into the United States Naval Reserve Forces to lend an aura of realism to the operation. ''Arabia'' departed Boston on 14 August 1918 and shaped a course for the fishing grounds at Georges Bank, a large elevated area of the sea floor which separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean situated between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Once there, she operated in concert with the U.S. Navy submarine USS ''N-1'' (Submarine No. 53) until after the Armistice with Germany ended World War I on 11 November 1918. Never having encountered ''U-117'', ''Arabia'' concluded her operations when she returned to port on 27 November 1918. ''Arabia'' was decommissioned soon after her return. She was stricken from the Navy List on 27 March 1919 and was sold to Mr. W. V. M. Powelson of New York City on 11 November 1919. ==References== * *(Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS ''Arabia'' (ID # 3434), 1918-1919. Originally the Civilian Fishing Schooner ''Arabia'' ) *(NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Arabia (ID 3434) ) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Arabia (ID-3434)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|