laststandonzombieisland

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time

period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  Aug 14

Here we see the patrol yacht USS Cythera (SP-575/PY-26) in her former livery as a Agawa, personal yacht. Owned by William Lamon  Harkness, an Ohio-born oil tycoon who owned a big portion of Standard Oil at the turn of the century, Agawa was actually Harkness’s second large yacht, but both would have a sad history.

You see Harkness, born with a silver spoon (he inherited his stake in Standard), was something of an arrogant person. His first yacht, the 195-foot mega cruiser Gunilda, was a work of art. Designed by Cox & King in London, England, and built by Ramage & Ferguson in Leith, Scotland. The yacht Gunilda launched from Scotland in 1897 and sailed across the Atlantic with a crew of 25 after being chartered in 1901 by a member of the New York Yacht Club. Press reports of the vessel’s arrival in America describe her as a schooner rigged with a sail area of 4,620 sq. ft of canvas. Harkness bought her in 1903 in a fit of extravagant spending, then in 1911 sank her in Lake Superior, apparently being too cheap to spend money on a pilot.

His new yacht, Agawa, was laid down at Ramage and Feguson as well. She was launched 20 September 1906, Mrs Harkness being her sponsor. A 215-foot long statement in white, she was beauty in motion. She won the Mill Trophy, an award for a long-distance yacht race, in both 1907 and 1909.  When the US entered World War One, the Navy was in fast need of boats that could be used as escort ships to convoy troops and supplies ‘Over There’. Harkness volunteered the love of his life for service and on 20 October 1917, the Agawa became the USS Cythera (SP 575). She served for a total of just under 18 months on the Naval List, being returned to her owner on 19 March 1919. In the war she sailed with Patrol Force, Atlantic Fleet, towing small boats to France and then escorting coastal convoys in the Med.

Harkness himself died on May 10, 1919, but his family put her back into civilian use for another two decades. At the time of his death, his estate was worth some $700-million in today’s dollars.

When WWII erupted, the Navy found itself in the same old problem as before, being eaten alive by German U-Boats in the Atlantic as well as Japanese ones in the Pacific. Mrs Harkness leased the now 30+ year old yacht back to the Navy for $1 on 3 Mar, 1942. On her first cruise, leaving Norfolk for Hawaii just a few months after Pearl Harbor, she was encountered by U-402 a Type VIIC German submarine under the command of Kaleu Siegfried von Forstner. Firing a single torpedo (of three fired) the U-boat broke the Cythera in half while she was zigzagging some 115-miles off the North Carolina Coast.

From U-boat.net ” The ship immediately split in two, and the forward half rose steeply out of the water. The ship sank very quickly and at least two of her depth charges that were preset exploded underwater. This information was told to me by one of the two survivors, Mr. James M. Brown, who I located in Maine in 1991. He was on forward lookout at the time of the attack. The other survivor was Charles H. Carter, but I was never able to locate him. He was standing on the bridge next to the Commander when they were attacked. As a side note, Charles H. Carter was at Pearl Harbor aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB 37) that was sunk during the Japanese attack. He survived two attacks within 5 months when the ships he was aboard were sunk – incredible!

Shortly after USS Cythera went down, U-402 surfaced and turned on its search light looking at whatever debris was floating in the large oil slick that was all that remained from the ship. Brown and Carter were found clinging to a small raft and were taken aboard as prisoners. They asked to be left back in the water but Von Forstner replied: No, boys, the war´s over for you. Both survivors were covered in oil, and Von Forstner gave his sweater to Mr. Brown. Both were also given some brandy to drink. Brown also spoke fluent German, but I never thought to ask if he revealed that to Von Forstner. He did say, however, that the Chief Engineer on the U-Boat spoke fluent English, so I suppose that´s how they communicated. When Brown asked Von Forstner why they were not machine-gunned in the water, Von Forstner and crew members present expressed shock that the Americans would even think of such a thing.

During the return trip to France the Americans were treated well. They were given cigarettes every day and allowed to go topside for fresh air every day. Brown said Von Forstner was a compassionate man who was not signed on to Nazi ideology. He was a professional sailor who came from a family of military background. He was not enthusiastic about war, but he did his job well as a German officer. When the Americans were turned over to the German Army in France there apparently was consternation between the U-Boat crew and the German soldiers, who may have manhandled the POWs. In the almost three-week trip to France, the crew and prisoners formed somewhat of a bond between them; in fact, the Americans even invited the crew to visit them in America after the war.

Brown, at least, wound up in a POW camp in Upper Silezia, Poland for the remainder of the war. The camp produced synthetic fuel and held mostly British POWs. Later in the war, the camp was abandoned because of advancing Soviet forces approaching from the east, and the POWs were force-marched toward Moosburg, Germany, to another camp. He was finally liberated in late April 1945 by forward units of Patton´s 3rd Army and made his way back across Europe where he was put in a military hospital for several weeks.”

U-402 herself was sunk on the 13th October 1943 in the middle of the North Atlantic, in position 48.56N, 29.41W, by an acoustic torpedo (Fido) from TBD Avenger supported by F4F Wildcat aircraft  of VC-9 flying from the escort carrier USS Card. Unlike the Cythera, she went down with all hands. Fortsner was credited with 15 ships sunk (71,036 tons) and 3 ships damaged (28,682 tons), of which Cythera was both the smallest and the only warship.

Cythera‘s name was recycled on 26 October 1942 when the yacht Argosy was commissioned into the US Navy

Mr. Harkness is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery.

Specs:
Displacement 1,000 t.
Length 215′
Beam 27′ 6″
Draft 12′
Speed 12 kts.
Complement 113 in WWI,  71 in WWII
Armament: WWI : One 3″ gun, depth charges. WWII: Three 3″ gun mounts, 50 depth charges on roll-off racks, four .50 caliber
HMGs
Propulsion: One 1,350ihp steam engine, one shaft.

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