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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

USCGC Wicomico (WPYc 158)



Call sign:
Nan - Roger - Charlie - Able

ex-USCGC Catoctin (WPYc 158)
ex-USS Kwasind (SP 1233)



Call sign (1919):
George - Rush - Quack - Watch



Saelmo call sign (1927):
Love - Dog - King - Quack

Dupont sign (1949):
King - Love - King - Nan


Kwasind served both the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard

Patrol Yacht:

  • Built in 1914 as Nokomis I by Robins Dry Dock and Repair Co., Brooklyn, NY
  • Acquired by the Navy 9 May 1917 from Horace Dodge of Detroit, MI
  • Commissioned USS Kwasind (SP 1233), 5 December 1917 at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn
  • Decommissioned 5 July 1919
  • Struck from the Naval Register in late 1919
  • Sold 4 December 1919 to W. H. Rabb of Brooklyn
  • Sold in 1921 to William H. Todd of New York and renamed Saelmo for his mother (Sarah Elizabeth Moody). William Todd was a riveter with Robins Dry Dock Co. and worked on Nokomis I
  • Sold in 1933 to the State of Maryland, renamed Dupont and converted to a patrol boat
  • Renamed Catoctin
  • Acquired by the Coast Guard and commissioned USCGC Catoctin (WPYc 158), 14 October 1942
  • Renamed Wicomico 1 September 1943
  • Decommissioned 2 July 1945 at Curtis Bay, MD and sold
  • Registered in 1949 to the State of Maryland, Conservation Department, Baltimore, MD as the patrol boat Dupont
  • Dropped from documentation in 1963
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 303 t.
  • Length 180'
    1927 - 154.5'
  • Beam 23' 6"
  • Draft 9' 3"
    1927 - 12.8'
  • Speed 16 kts.
  • Complement 63
    1927 - 20
  • Armament: Two 3"/50 mounts and two machine gun
    1943 - Two 20mm mounts
  • Propulsion: Two Almy boilers, one 1,000hp vertical triple-expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Nikomis I
    Kwasind 52k Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Kwasind 75k Photographed circa 1914-17, prior to her Navy service
    U.S. Navy photo NH 102016    		 Naval Historical Center
    USCGC Catoctin (WPYc 158)
    Kwasind 144k Tied up pierside prior to her name change
    Photo from "U.S. Coast Guard Cutters and Craft of World War II" by Robert L. Scheina    		 Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR William W. Ramsay, USN5 December 1917
    02LT John B. Blood, USN1918 - 1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships:

    Kwasind

    In Longfellow's poem, a friend of Hiawatha known for his great strength.

    Kwasind (SP-1233), a steam yacht, was built by Robins Dry Dock & Repair Co., Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1914 as Nokomis I; then purchased from her owner, Horace E. Dodge, 9 May 1917. After conversion to Navy use at New York, she commissioned at New York Navy Yard 5 December 1917, Lt. Comdr. W. W. Ramsay in command.

    Assigned to service in the Caribbean, Kwasind departed New York 9 December and sailed via Charleston and Guantanamo Bay to Santo Domingo, where she arrived 28 December. For the next I5 months she was based at Santo Domingo and sailed to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and Cuba with Marines and passengers. Kwasind remained in the Caribbean after the Armistice, sailing 9 June 1919 via Charleston for New York where she arrived 23 June. The ship decommissioned 5 July 1919 at New York and was eventually sold to W. H. Raab of Brooklyn 4 December 1919.

    Coast Guard History:

    Wicomico

    A river and county in Maryland.

    The Wicomico was the 303-ton, 155-foot steel-hulled steam yacht built by Robins Dry Dock & Repair Co., Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1914 as Nokomis I. She was purchased from her owner, Horace Dodge, 9 May 1917 by the Navy and was renamed Kwasind (SP-1233) after the name of a warrior in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha. After conversion to Navy use at New York, she commissioned at New York Navy Yard 5 December 1917, LCDR W. W. Ramsay in command.

    Assigned to service in the Caribbean, Kwasind departed New York 9 December and sailed via Charleston and Guantanamo Bay to Santo Domingo, where she arrived 28 December. For the next 18 months she was based at Santo Domingo and sailed to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and Cuba with Marines and passengers. Kwasind remained in the Caribbean after the Armistice, sailing 9 June 1919 via Charleston for New York where she arrived 23 June. The ship decommissioned 5 July 1919 at New-York and was eventually sold to W. H. Raab of Brooklyn 4 December 1919.

    The Coast Guard acquired her in 1942 from the Conservation Department of the State of Maryland (at this time she was named Catoctin) for emergency service as a patrol craft. She was commissioned on 14 October 1942 at the Coast Guard Yard and was given the hull number WPYc-158 (CGR-2006). She was assigned to CINCLANT and was originally ordered to San Juan, Puerto Rico for service with the Caribbean Sea Frontier. On 19 November 1942 she was ordered to Norfolk for “orders and routing to assigned area” and got underway to Morehead City, North Carolina that same day. She departed Morehead City for Charleston on 27 November. On 7 December 1942 she requested orders “proceed on duty assigned”.

    On 14 January 1943 she was ordered to report for duty at Melville, Rhode Island for service with the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center (MTBSTC) after first having all her armament removed save for two 20mm anti-aircraft guns while undergoing a conversion-refit at the Charleston Navy Yard which started on 6 January 1943. Once at MTBSTC she saw service as a torpedo target and torpedo retriever for the PT boats undergoing training at the MTBSTC. From 23 August to 20 September 1943 she was overhauled at the Newport Ship Yard. While there, on 1 September, she was
    renamed Wicomico.

    She departed Rhode Island on 7 June 1945 underway for Curtis Bay where she was decommissioned 2 July 1945.

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