USS Nokomis (SP-609)

USS Nokomis (SP-609) was a yacht purchased by the U.S. Navy during World War I. She was outfitted as a patrol craft with 3-inch guns, and assigned to protect commercial shipping in the North Atlantic Ocean from German submarines and Q-ships. Post-war she was returned to the U.S. and decommissioned. Subsequently, she was placed back into service as a survey vessel, a role she maintained for nearly two decades before again being decommissioned and struck from the Navy List.

Built in Delaware
The first ship to be so named by the U.S. Navy, Nokomis was a yacht built as Nokomis II by Pusey & Jones, Wilmington, Delaware, in 1914. The Navy purchased the yacht from Horace E. Dodge of Detroit, Michigan 1 June 1917. The ship was renamed Nokomis 19 November 1917 and was commissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 3 December 1917.

North Atlantic Ocean duty
Fitted out at Philadelphia, Nokomis sailed for Bermuda 19 December with a French submarine chaser in tow. She departed Bermuda for Brest, France, 8 January 1918, stopping en route at the Azores and Leixões, Portugal. Operating with the U.S. Patrol Squadron for the remainder of the war, she helped protect American troop transports approaching the coast of France.

Nokomis spent the rest of the conflict on patrol and escort duty off western France, and remained in European waters for several months after the November 1918 Armistice brought an end to the fighting.

Reclassified as a survey ship
Terminating this duty in 1919, Nokomis returned to the United States in August. Reclassified PY–6 in 1920, the yacht decommissioned at New York City 25 February 1921.

Outfitted as a ship's tender for the Naval Governor of Santo Domingo in July 1921, she did not assume this duty, but conducted surveys in Mexican and Caribbean waters under direction of the Hydrographic Office.

Final decommissioning
Returning to Norfolk, Virginia, 24 September 1934, Nokomis decommissioned 15 February 1938 and was struck from the Navy Register 25 May 1938.