USS Aramis ( SP - 418 ) USS " Aramis " ( SP - 418 / PY - 7 ) was a yacht acquired by the United States Navy during World War I which served as a patrol boat off New York City , was then fitted with an experimental " underwater detection system " and depth charges as an anti - submarine vessel , and was briefly the flagship of a battleship squadron . She ended her career as a tender and houseboat to a survey vessel off the coast of Cuba , until disposed of in 1933 . Construction . " Aramis " was a steel - hulled yacht designed by the naval architects Swasey , Raymond , and Page . Completed in 1916 at City Island , New York , by Robert Jacob , she was built for Arthur Hudson Marks , the vice president of the Goodrich Rubber Co . , of Akron , Ohio . Equipped with one of the first marine diesel engine s to be installed in an American yacht , " Aramis " came to the Navy ' s notice soon after the United States entered World War I in April 1917 . Service history . Patrol craft . The Navy acquired " Aramis " on 3 July , " enrolled " her six days later , and accepted her on 11 August for service at the New York Navy Yard . Assigned the designation SP - 418 , she was placed in commission there on 2 November 1917 , with Lieutenant John A . Jackson , USNRF , in command . The next morning , " Aramis " proceeded , via Fort Lafayette , to her patrol station at the mouth of New York Harbor , arriving at the net defenses that afternoon . She maintained watch there until the morning of the 5th , noting the movement of other patrol craft and , at night , sweeping the net with her searchlight every 30 minutes . After her second tour at the net defenses on the 6th and 7th , she returned to moor at the pier at the foot of 24th Street on the 8th . Returning to the nets later that day , she spotted a strange craft in a forbidden area . " Aramis " lowered her launch , under the command of her executive officer , Lt . ( jg . ) Williams , USNRF , to give chase . Ultimately , he returned with the launch " Kid " , its occupants arrested for an intrusion into the net area off limits to private craft . A similar incident occurred over a week later when " Aramis " hailed a launch that crossed the net but did not stop . On that occasion , a section patrol craft SP - 1201 overtook the intruder , took her into custody , and towed her to Fort Lafayette . Underway from the ordnance pier at Sandy Hook at 11 : 50 on 20 November , bound for the Scotland and Ambrose Lightships , " Aramis " received orders by semaphore from the tug " Cayuga " to report forthwith to the New York Navy Yard . Arriving at 17 : 15 for further orders , " Aramis " shifted to the Jersey Central Railroad Pier the next morning where she was briefly visited by Secretary of War Newton D . Baker . The purpose of the Secretary ' s visit is not clear from the ship ' s log . After disembarking her distinguished guest , " Aramis " returned to the New York Navy Yard and shifted thence to the Marine Basin , Brooklyn , on the 24th . Underwater detection system . Underway for New London , Connecticut , on the morning of 4 December , " Aramis " reached port the following morning . She provisioned there and then , on the afternoon of the 20th , voyaged to the marine railway of the Riverside shipyard at Greenport , Long Island , New York . On the morning of the 22nd , the ship was hauled out for repairs and alterations — and , apparently , the installation of a primitive underwater detection system . Off the ways on 9 January 1918 , " Aramis " returned to New London . There , off Fort Trumbull , a launch from the cruiser , the flagship for the Submarine Force , Atlantic Fleet , came alongside on the morning of 18 January bearing Lt . Comdr . Chester W . Nimitz — the future fleet admiral — and a board of officers and civilians to test the recently installed listening apparatus . The yacht carried out further experimentation with the listening gear into February , when she was ordered back to the New York Navy Yard . Casting off from the Public Dock , New London , at 10 : 43 on the 7th , the ship was caught briefly in an ice floe two hours later . She made stops at New Haven , Connecticut , and at the Marine Basin , Brooklyn , before reaching the navy yard early on the 27th . Ordered to convoy the submarine ( Submarine No . 44 ) to New London , " Aramis " got underway with her charge at 10 : 00 that same morning and escorted the submersible on her voyage without incident , reaching their destination later the same day . Returning to New York the next morning , " Aramis " struck submerged wreckage near Middle Ground Light , knocking off a blade of her port screw . As she continued onward she passed through " considerable wreckage " on the " steamer track " 10 miles east of Middle Ground Light , flotsam that included hatches and parts of heavy decking . " Aramis " reached the Marine Basin late on the 28th and shifted to Seabury ' s Shipyard , Morris Heights , on 5 March . She remained there into April undergoing repairs and shifted to the New York Navy Yard on the 9th . On 16 May , while the ship was at Section Base No . 6 , Bath Beach , Brooklyn , Rear Admiral Usher and Captain Louis de Steiguer inspected the ship . On 21 June , while the ship was undergoing a refit at Shewan ' s Shipyard , Brooklyn , Elmer A . Sperry , the inventor of the gyroscopic compass , came on board to work on one of his compasses that had been installed in the ship . Anti - submarine vessel . Underway from Shewan ' s yard on the afternoon of 27 June , " Aramis " arrived at Section Base No . 6 later that day . On the 28th , she shifted to the Ammunition Depot at Fort Lafayette , and there took on board four Mark I depth charges , the most primitive type , which required no fixed launcher — only a strong sailor to heave it over the side . Now equipped with listening gear and an anti - submarine warfare ( ASW ) capability , albeit primitive , " Aramis " returned to the business of patrolling the waters of the 3rd Naval District assigned her . " Aramis " spent much of July engaged in training " listeners " , operating out of Section Base No . 6 . She also performed local convoy escort duties on 16 July and lay at a " listening post " the following day , apparently near the course of a convoy . Her regimen remained the same into August , and she spent the first few days of that month engaged in " listening " on station near Ambrose Lightship , alternating with and , and the submarine chaser s " SC - 52 " , " SC - 53 " , and " SC - 56 " . Underway from Section Base No . 6 at 11 : 57 on 12 August , " Aramis " relieved " SC - 55 " at the Fire Island lightship at 17 : 00 and commenced listening with her " K " tubes ( the primitive listening gear ) soon thereafter . At 18 : 45 , " Aramis " came upon the captain and crew ( 30 men in all ) of the Norwegian steamer " Sommerstad " , three days out of Halifax , Nova Scotia , which had been torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine that morning . Picking up the Norwegian sailors and taking their boats in tow , " Aramis " headed back to port at 23 : 00 . After casting " Somerstad " s motor sailer — in a leaky condition — adrift , " Aramis " reached the Barge Office at the Battery , New York City , at 11 : 05 on the 13th , where the Norwegians were sent ashore to be aided by their consul . Underway again at 11 : 35 , " Aramis " reached Section Base No . 6 at 12 : 45 , her rescue mission completed . However , she did not stay long before she got underway again for a patrol station soon thereafter . Unfortunately , at 18 : 30 that afternoon , " Aramis " rammed ( Coast Torpedo Vessel No . 12 ) , causing the latter to miss the sailing of a convoy , but suffered no damage herself . While returning to her section base at 15 : 55 the next day , " Aramis " forward lookout spotted what looked like a floating spar about 300 yards off the starboard bow . Ensign George Dumars , USNRF , the officer of the deck , managed to obtain a quick glimpse of it before it vanished . " Aramis " was brought dead in the water and her listening gear was put into operation . The man listening reported that he heard submarine engines . Within five minutes , the commanding officer , Ensign Leroy W . Tilt , USNRF , called all hands to general quarters . Reporting the presence of a submarine to district headquarters , " Aramis " bent on speed and came about . At 17 : 15 , the patrol craft spotted the , standing up from the eastward , about seven miles south . After her attempts to reach that vessel by radio failed , " Aramis " fired a blank charge to attract " Hauoli " s attention , and the patrol boat came alongside at 18 : 00 . Unfortunately , " Hauoli " s approach " gummed the listening device to such an extent as to drown all other sounds , " enabling the submarine — as everyone believed it was — to slip away . " Aramis " , with " Hauoli " standing by , then headed for the spot the submarine had last been seen and , during the next quarter hour dropped her four Mark I depth charges , one by one . Unfortunately , none of them worked . Subsequently shifting from Base No . 6 to the Marine Basin at Brooklyn — where she took on board a pair of depth charges from ( Coast Torpedo Boat No . 31 ) — " Aramis " relieved the converted yacht on patrol duty on 18 August before returning to the Marine Basin for the installation of new wireless equipment . She proceeded to her section base on the 25th , only to move over to Shewan ' s shipyard on the 27th . Flagship . No logs exist for " Aramis " activities over the next four months , but extant message traffic reveals that she was detached from the 3rd Naval District on 18 September for use as a division commander ' s flagship and was directed to proceed to Base Two ( Yorktown , Virginia ) and report to the Commander - in - Chief , Atlantic Fleet . However , " Aramis " chronic engine trouble delayed her departure until 6 October 1918 , when the yacht finally sailed unescorted . What followed for the next month and a half — during which the armistice brought World War I to an end — is not certain ; but , on 22 November 1918 , Rear Admiral Thomas Washington , Commander , Battleship Division 3 , Atlantic Fleet , assumed command of his division and broke his flag in " Aramis " . Unfortunately , " Aramis " history of engine trouble again proved her undoing . The message traffic indicates that she proved to be unsuitable for her new task ; and , on 3 December , was ordered to proceed to relieve " Aramis " as flagship for the Commander of Battleship Division 3 . Post - war service . Detached on 12 December , " Aramis " was assigned temporary duty at the Submarine Base , New London . Upon the arrival of , " Aramis " was directed to proceed to Commander , Submarine Base , New London . " Aramis " ' subsequent movements appear to have elicited considerable interest within the 3rd and 4th Naval Districts , since at one point nobody knew for sure where she was . Limping into Lewes , Delaware , on the afternoon of 20 December , " Aramis " finally reached New London by the end of the year , since when her log resumed on 1 January 1919 , she was at that port , moored at Dock " D " , Submarine Base . Although detached from duty at New London on 17 March , " Aramis " did not get underway until the morning of 1 April 1919 and reached New York the following morning , anchoring in the familiar waters off Section Base No . 6 . " Aramis " shifted to Pier " A " , the Battery , on the afternoon of 6 April 1919 , and , the following morning at 10 : 05 , embarked Rear Admiral Guy H . Bunage , and a party that included Mrs . William S . Sims and the Sims ' children , Margaret , Adeline , and William , Jr . , to await the return from Europe of Rear Admiral William S . Sims , the former commander of United States naval forces operating in European waters . Underway at 10 : 40 , the yacht proceeded down the harbor . The passage toward the reunion of the admiral and his family , however , was almost a disaster . At 11 : 00 , " Aramis " sighted a British freighter on a converging course and swung to the right side of the shipping channel in order to give the merchantman the advantage of deeper water . " Aramis " blew one whistle signal and maintained her course and speed , but the steamer did not show any intention of slowing down and bore down on the yacht . Lt . ( jg . ) Tilt , in making his protest over the handling of the British merchantman , reported what followed : " The steamer . . . in going under our stern came so close that had the " Aramis " not thrown the wheel hard over left a collision would have occurred . " " Aramis " resumed her harbor cruise , and proceeded without further incident . She moored alongside the British Cunard liner at 16 : 00 and soon embarked her distinguished passenger , Admiral Sims . Docking at Pier " A " a little under an hour later , she disembarked the reunited family and the other dignitaries who had been on board and returned to her section base . " Aramis " remained in the New York area into the summer . She cruised to New London and back in late July before receiving orders , dated 9 August 1919 , sending her to the Potomac River as the prospective relief for . Departing New York on 8 September , " Aramis " reached the Washington Navy Yard on 13 September and remained there , being assigned duty , along with as a " Navy Department tender . " On 24 October , orders arrived directing the ships to sail for the New York Navy Yard to undergo conversion work . Returning to the New York Navy Yard on 10 November 1919 , " Aramis " remained there for the rest of 1919 and for all of 1920 , retained in commission but inactive . During this time in Brooklyn , she was re - classified as a " patrol vessel , converted yacht , " and was renumbered PY - 7 , on 17 July 1920 . Decommissioning . Early the following year , it had been thought that " Aramis " would ultimately relieve " Sylph " , but the cost of necessary work to the former apparently caused a rethinking of the idea , and it was accordingly dropped between March and June , 1921 . The Chief of Naval Operations subsequently directed the Commandant of the 3rd Naval District on 3 September 1921 to place " Aramis " out of commission " as soon as is practicable . . . with a view toward the eventual recommissioning of this vessel . " Accordingly , on 6 October 1921 , " Aramis " was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard . Towed by the fleet tug , " Aramis " reached the reserve basin at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 9 October 1923 and remained inactive until redesignated as a " District Craft , Unclassified , " in late 1924 . She was then slated to serve as a tender and houseboat to " Nokomis " , which was being assigned to survey duty off the coast of Cuba . Service as Tender , and disposal . Assigned to the 7th Naval District , " Aramis " was towed to Key West , Florida , by the tug in December 1924 . For the next nine years , the yacht remained in operation , kept in repair by the crew of " Nokomis " as that ship conducted important surveys based at Cárdenas on the northeastern coast of Cuba . Finally , after she had deteriorated to the point where she was unfit for further naval service , " Aramis " was placed on the list of naval vessels to be disposed of by sale or salvage . Stripped of all useful items at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , Cuba , by mid - July 1933 , " Aramis " was struck from the Navy List on 20 July 1933 . She was sold to R . E . O ' Fallon of Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , on 13 November 1933 . Her ultimate fate is unknown .