USS Arabia

	USS Arabia (ID-3434) under full sail in mid-1918.
History
United States
Name	USS Arabia
Namesake	Previous name retained
Completed	1903
Acquired	13 August 1918
Commissioned	14 August 1918
Stricken	27 March 1919
Fate	Sold 11 November 1919
Notes	Operated as commercial fishing schooner Arabia 1903-1918
General characteristics
Type	Patrol vessel
Tonnage	123.28 gross tons
Length	113 ft 4 in (34.54 m)
Beam	25 ft 9 in (7.85 m)
Draft	14 ft (4.267200000 m)* aft
Speed	8 knots
Complement	28

USS Arabia (ID-3434) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission during 1918.

Arabia was built as a commercial fishing schooner of the same name in 1903 at Essex, Massachusetts. With World War I raging, the German submarine U-117 created havoc with the New England commercial fishing fleet during the summer of 1918, and the U.S. Navy acquired Arabia on 13 August 1918 from the Commonwealth Fisheries Company for use as a decoy ship in antisubmarine operations against U-117. She was assigned the naval registry identification number 3434 and commissioned on 14 August 1918 at Boston, Massachusetts, as USS Arabia (ID-3434) with Lieutenant, junior grade, Lester F. Rogers in command.

The concept behind the use of Arabia as a decoy ship was for her to deploy into U-117's presumed operating area teamed with a U.S Navy submarine, which would follow her. It was hoped that her innocent appearance would lure U-117 to the surface to attack her with gunfire, allowing the submerged U.S. Navy submarine nearby to torpedo and sink the German submarine. In addition to a Navy crew of two officers and seven enlisted men, 19 fishermen - 16 of them from Arabia's original crew — were recruited into the United States Naval Reserve Forces to lend an aura of realism to the operation.

Arabia departed Boston on 14 August 1918 and shaped a course for the fishing grounds at Georges Bank, a large elevated area of the sea floor which separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean situated between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Once there, she operated in concert with the U.S. Navy submarine USS N-1 (Submarine No. 53) until after the Armistice with Germany ended World War I on 11 November 1918. Never having encountered U-117, Arabia concluded her operations when she returned to port on 27 November 1918.

Arabia was decommissioned soon after her return. She was stricken from the Navy List on 27 March 1919 and was sold to Mr. W. V. M. Powelson of New York City on 11 November 1919.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Arabia (ID # 3434), 1918-1919. Originally the Civilian Fishing Schooner Arabia
NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Arabia (ID 3434)