USS Isabel (PY-10)

USS Isabel (PY-10) at Hankow, China, in 1937, dressed overall for the coronation of King George VI of the United Kingdom
History
Name:	Isabel
Namesake:	previous name retained
Builder:	Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
Cost:	$611,553 (USD) (purchase price)
Completed:	1917
Commissioned:	28 December 1917
Decommissioned:	30 April 1920
Recommissioned:	18 July 1921
Decommissioned:	11 February 1946
Reclassified:	From destroyer (with patrol vessel designation "SP-521") to patrol yacht PY-10 17 July 1920
Struck:	26 February 1946
Honors and awards:	One battle star for World War II service
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 2 March 1946
Notes:	Built as private yacht Isabel
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer 1917–1920 Patrol yacht 1920–1946
Displacement:	710 tons
Length:	245 ft 3 in (74.75 m) oa 230 ft (70.10 m) pp
Beam:	27 ft 9 in (8.46 m)
Draft:	8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) or 9 ft 2 in (2.79 m)
Propulsion:	2 × Norman boilers Parsons Steam turbines 2 shafts 8,400 shp (6,300 kW)
Speed:	26 knots or 28.8 knots
Complement:	103
Armament:	1917: 4 × 3-inch (76.2-millimeter) 50-caliber guns 4 × 21-inch (533-millimeter) torpedo tubes 1 × depth charge projector 2 × .30-caliber (7.62-millimeter) Lewis machine guns 1921: 2 × 3-inch (76.2-millimeter) 50-caliber guns 2 × 3-inch (76.2-millimeter) 23-caliber antiaircraft guns 1 × depth charge projector 2 × .30-caliber (7.62-millimeter) Lewis machine guns

USS Isabel (SP-521), later PY-10, was a yacht in commission in the United States Navy as a destroyer from 1917 to 1920 and as a patrol yacht from 1921 to 1946.

Isabel was built as a private yacht in 1917 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine for automobile manufacturer John North Willys of Toledo, Ohio. Willys had intended for the yacht to have qualities that would make her desirable for use by the U.S. Navy, and had contacted the Navy about the possibility of selling her into naval service. The Navy initially was uninterested. However, after the United States entered World War I on 6 April 1917, the Navy decided to buy Isabel, which it viewed as being not only highly suitable for use as a patrol vessel but also having characteristics similar to those of a destroyer. The Navy therefore acquired her in 1917 prior to completion, converted to Navy use as a destroyer, gave her the patrol vessel designation SP-521, and commissioned her as USS Isabel at the Boston Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts, on 28 December 1917 with Lieutenant Commander Harry E. Shoemaker in command.

Isabel departed on 28 January 1918 for France via Bermuda and the Azores. She reached Brest, France, on 20 February 1918 to begin convoy escort duties. While performing coastal convoy duty, she fought German submarines on four occasions. The first time was on 18 March 1918, when at 10:50 hours, while proceeding westward and escorting stores ship USS Rappahannock (AF-6) and transport USS President Grant (ID-3014), she and destroyer USS Reid (DD-21) spotted a German submarine off Penmarc'h, France. Reid fired on the submarine and dropped two depth charges, while Isabel dropped one depth charge. Although the two ships were credited with sinking the submarine, evidence gathered later indicated that the submarine had escaped.