USFS Halcyon

USS ''Halcyon'' (SP-518) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919. She saw service during World War I and its immediate aftermath. After the conclusion of her naval service, she was in the United States Bureau of Fisheries fleet as the research vessel USFS ''Halcyon'' from 1919 to 1927.

Construction and characteristics

After receiving an appropriation of US$45,000 from the United States Congress for the construction of a ship for use along the coast of Maine, the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) awarded a contract for US$44,217 to the Townsend Marine Railway and Construction Company at Boothbay Harbor, Maine.[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1916.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1916 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1917, p. 112.] Designed both to support the fish hatchery at the BOF's Boothbay Harbor station and to conduct Oceanography, oceanographic and fisheries science research, the ship, named USFS ''Halcyon'', was launched on 30 November 1916[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1917.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1917 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919, p. 102.] and completed and accepted by the BOF on 3 May 1917. She was long and of wooden construction, and her main deck had a Cabin (ship), cabin, a laboratory, accommodations for her officers and embarked scientists, and a mast fitted for dredging. Crew quarters were below decks, as were water tanks and equipment for transporting live fishes. She had a steam engine, an Almy boiler, and a single screw.

Operational history

U.S. Navy

While ''Halcyon'' was under construction, the United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917. As a result, before ''Halycon'' could begin her intended fisheries service, the Bureau of Fisheries transferred her to the United States Navy on 14 May 1917 for war service. The Navy commissioned her the same day at Boston, Massachusetts, as USS ''Halcyon'' (SP-518),The U.S. Navy originally intended to acquire the vessel ''Surf'' for World War I use as a patrol vessel in the section patrol and to assign ''Surf'' the designation SP-518, but never commissioned ''Surf'', and reassigned the designation "SP-518" to ''Halcyon''. the first U.S. Navy ship of the name. Assigned to the section patrol in the 1st Naval District in northern New England, ''Halcyon'' performed harbor patrol duties for the remainder of World War I and in its immediate aftermath. The Navy decommissioned her on 24 June 1919, struck her from the Navy List on 31 July 1919, and transferred her back to the Bureau of Fisheries on 5 August 1919.[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1919.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1919 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919, p. 55.]

U.S. Bureau of Fisheries

The Bureau of Fisheries reported that the Navy transferred ''Halcyon'' back in good condition, but also that she was not fully complete or equipped at the time of her 1917 transfer to the Navy and that she needed additional work before she was ready for BOF service.[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1920.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1920 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921, p. 64.] This included the removal of a heavy gun platform the Navy had installed on her forward Deck (ship), deck, an overhaul of her engine and other machinery, interior alterations, and the installation of bilge keels, electric lighting, and a dredging winch.

Finally ready for fishery service, USFS ''Halcyon'' made her first scientific cruise in August 1920; conducted at the request of fishing interests in Massachusetts, the cruise covered of fishing grounds in the Gulf of Maine and to the south and southwest of the South Shoal Lightship in an unsuccessful attempt to locate schools of mackerel.[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1921.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1921 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1922, p. 49.] She then made two oceanographic cruises in the Gulf of Maine under the direction of Dr. Henry Bryant Bigelow, Henry B. Bigelow, the first in December 1920–January 1921 and the second in March 1921, steaming a combined total of between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia, Canada. Based at the BOF's Boothbay Harbor station from July to October 1921,[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1922.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1922 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1923, pp. 48–49.] she underwent an overhaul in July and August 1921. With it completed, she made a cruise between Nantucket, Massachusetts, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Browns Bank, and [ Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, to collect bottom samples in support of a hydrographic survey of the Gulf of Maine.

In October 1921, ''Halcyon''s home port changed to the BOF station at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She towed the BOF vessel USFS ''Widgeon'' from Woods Hole to Hampton Roads, Virginia, arriving there on 25 November 1921.NOAA Fisheries Alaska Science Fisheries Center AFSC Historical Corner: Widgeon, World War I Boat
/ref> USFS ''Widgeon'' subsequently was loaded aboard the U.S. Navy cargo ship at Hampton Roads for delivery to Seattle, Washington, and ultimately for duty as a United States Bureau of Fisheries patrol vessel in the waters of the Territory of Alaska. (Se
NOAA Fisheries Alaska Science Fisheries Center AFSC Historical Corner: Widgeon, World War I Boat
)

During March and April 1922, ''Halcyon'' was at Newport, Rhode Island, spending little time at sea but conducting work in support of flatfish studies by the Woods Hole station. She spent June 1922 preparing for a cruise to study currents, and by 30 June 1922 had steamed a total of over the preceding year. On 30 June 1922 she got underway from Woods Hole and conducted a cruise during which she made observations of currents on lines extending from Sandy Hook, Connecticut, from Chatham, Massachusetts, and from Cape Elizabeth, Maine.[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1923.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1923 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1924, pp. 48–49.] During August and September 1922, her crew overhauled the BOF fishery patrol vessel .

In February 1923, ''Halycon'' provided valuable service in keeping channels open through ice in the harbors of Gloucester, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and Salem, Massachusetts, and from April through June 1923, she tagged codfish near Nantucket. By 30 June 1923, she had steamed over the preceding year.

During fiscal year 1924, which ran from 1 July 1923 to 30 June 1924, ''Halcyon'' again tagged codfish during the summer months.[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1924.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1924 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1925, p. xxxviii.] She also used drift bottles to study currents on lines running offshore from Mount Desert, Maine, Mount Desert and Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and Cape Ann and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and conducted two short cruises to observe water temperatures in Massachusetts Bay.

During fiscal year 1925 (1 July 1924–30 June 1925), ''Halcyon'' steamed .[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1925.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1925 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1926, p. xxxviii.] Although she devoted the winter of 1924–1925 to Fish culture, fish-culture work in support of the BOF fish hatchery at Gloucester, Massachusetts, she spent much of the rest of the fiscal year investigating fisheries in the Gulf of Maine, operating from Nantucket Shoals to Mount Desert, Maine. Most of her work during the fiscal year involved tagging cod, haddock, and pollack to gain data on their migrations, and her crew and embarked scientists tagged 16,000 fish during the fiscal year. However, she also made some temperature observations and collected shore fishes.

''Halcyon'' continued her fishery investigations in the Gulf of Maine during fiscal year 1926 (1 July 1925–30 June 1926), working in concert with the BOF research vessel and steaming nearly .[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1926.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1926 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1927, p. xliv.] She interrupted this work in February 1926 to visit Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, Kittery, Maine, where her crew reconditioned the newly acquired BOF research vessel .

Fiscal year 1926 turned out to be ''Halcyon''s last year of active BOF service. By the time ''Albatross II'' began operating for the BOF in August 1926, taking up ''Halcyon''s former duties in and around the Gulf of Maine, the BOF had laid up ''Halcyon''.[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1927.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1927 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1928, p. xxxviii.] Deeming her to be "well built" but of "peculiar design" and no longer suited to BOF requirements, the BOF condemned and sold her in November 1927.[ftp://ftp.library.noaa.gov/docs.lib/htdocs/rescue/cof/COF_1928.PDF Bureau of Fisheries, ''Report of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries for the Fiscal Year 1928 With Appendixes'', Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1929.]

Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Halcyon
World War I patrol vessels of the United States
Patrol vessels of the United States Navy
Ships built in Boothbay Harbor, Maine
Ships of the United States Bureau of Fisheries
1916 ships