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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 543:  USS Aztec at the Boston Navy Yard, 20 December 1917

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Aztec (SP-590), 1917-1919.
Originally the Steam Yacht Aztec (1902).
Later HMCS Beaver (Canadian Patrol Ship, 1941-1946)

USS Aztec, a 848 gross ton patrol vessel, was built in 1902 at Elizabethport, New Jersey, as the steam yacht of the same name. She was leased by the Navy in June 1917 and placed in commission late in that month. Following post-commissioning overhaul, Aztec spent the rest of World War I, and the first months following the 11 November 1918 Armistice, as flagship of the First Naval District, headquartered at Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to making inspection cruises around northern New England, she also was employed for escort and patrol duties. In late December 1918 Aztec carried Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Victory Fleet Review in New York Harbor. She was decommissioned in mid-March 1919 and returned to her owner in August 1919.

In the early 1930s, after more than a decade of further yachting, Aztec was laid up at Boston. She was sold to a Canadian owner in 1940 and, in May of that year, taken over by the Royal Canadian Navy. Commissioned as HMCS Beaver in March 1941, the ship performed escort, patrol, tender and transportation missions in the Canadian Atlantic provinces until September 1944, when she was drydocked for repair of serious defects and, shortly afterwards, decommissioned. Beaver had no further active service and was sold in January 1946.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Aztec (SP-590), and the steam yacht Aztec of 1902.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 93937-A

Aztec
(American Steam Yacht, 1902)

Photographed prior to World War I by Edwin Levick, New York.
This yacht was acquired by the Navy on 29 June 1917 and commissioned one day later as USS Aztec (SP-590). She was returned to her owner on 7 August 1919.

The original print is in National Archives' Record Group 19-LCM.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 543

USS Aztec
(SP-590)

At the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 20 December 1917
Note the ship's camouflage scheme, and the coaling facility beyond her bow.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 74KB; 740 x 580 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59578

USS Aztec
(SP-590)

In port on 1 January 1918, probably at the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts.
Note the ship's camouflage scheme, and ice on the ship and the water.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 93KB; 530 x 765 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 16 December 2003