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. Designed both to support the fish hatchery at the BOF's Boothbay Harbor station and to conduct oceanographic and fisheries science research, the ship, named USFS Halcyon, was launched on 30 November 1916 and completed and accepted by the BOF on 3 May 1917. She was 108 feet 6 inches (33.1 m) long and of wooden construction, and her main deck had a 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 320-horsepower (239 kW) 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 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.
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