The USS Sachem, a century-old warship abandoned in a river in the United States

There are warships whose history would merit a more honorable fate. This is the case of a very old one, the USS Sachem (SP-192).

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The USS Sachem was laid down in late 1901 in Wilmington, Delaware (USA). She was initially built as a luxury yacht at the Pusey & Jones shipyard, receiving the name "Celt," according to the website uss-sachem.org. Designed by Henry C. Wintringham, the 57-meter-long steam-powered vessel was commissioned by John Rogers Maxwell, a Manhattan-based railroad entrepreneur.

After only five months of construction, the vessel was launched on April 12, 1902. Maxwell, her owner, was fond of fast boats and eventually amassed a fleet of 27. The "Celt" had a beautiful white hull, with elegant bow trim and a funnel in the center. The fate of the "Celt" was marked by the death of her owner on December 10, 1910. His widow sold her to Manton Bradley Metcalf, a Rhode Island textile entrepreneur, who renamed her "Sachem," using her as a private yacht.

Following the country's entry into World War I, the U.S. Navy requisitioned the "Sachem" on July 3, 1917, christening her USS Sachem (SP-192) and using her as a patrol boat searching for submarines, after being officially commissioned into the Navy on August 19 of that year, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. In its militarization process, the until then beautiful yacht lost its two masts and its white hull, adopting a darker paint job and being armed with a 57 mm cannon, two 37 mm cannons, two light machine guns and a depth charge launcher.

Before carrying out any patrol duties, this ship's fate crossed with a famous inventor: Thomas Alva Edison, who was experimenting with a more effective submarine detection system. The Navy gave him the USS Sachem for his experiments, which he carried out between August and October 2017. Unfortunately, Edison's experiments on this ship bore no fruit, and when the war ended, the USS Sachem had not seen combat or even made a single patrol in search of German U-boats.

The Navy returned the ship to its owner on February 10, 1919. The Sachem regained its beautiful white hull and two masts and once again became a luxury yacht. Later, it was sold to Roland Leslie Taylor, who used it to smuggle liquor during the Prohibition years (1920–1933). Taylor was forced to sell the vessel due to the Great Depression of 1929. The Sachem was sold at a greatly reduced price to Captain Jacob "Jake" Martin of Brooklyn, who converted the yacht into a recreational fishing vessel, even catching sharks with it.

In 1935, Martin replaced the old steam engine with a diesel engine. Following the U.S. entry into World War II with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Navy requisitioned the Sachem on February 17, 1942, christening her USS Phenakite (PYc-25) and paying $65,000 for her, and she was used as a coastal patrol vessel. The re-armed and painted gray ship entered service on July 1, 1942, in Tompkinsville, New York, but eventually patrolled the Caribbean Sea with the Fleet Sonar School Squadron and the Key West Squadron in Florida, testing new sonar systems on her.

The USS Phenakite was decommissioned from the Navy on February 7, 1946. There were plans to scrap her, but Jacob "Jake" Martin, her former owner, managed to buy her back for $5,353, rebranding her as the "Sachem." The ship was no longer in good condition and was abandoned until Martin finally sold her in 1946 to Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises of New York, who used her as a tour boat, renaming her the "Sightseer," and changing her name again to the "Circle Line V" in the late 1950s. She served as a tour boat in New York until 1977.

Sadly, the ship was sold for scrap and stripped of everything useful. However, it was donated to the Sea Scouts. In 1984, her traces disappeared, leading to the belief that she had been scrapped. In 1986, the ship was finally discovered in the muddy bottom of the Hudson River, from where Robert "Butch" Miller pulled her out for restoration. The "Sachem," as she was renamed, became a vagrant, frequently being moved from one place to another to avoid paying dock fees. Interestingly, in 1986, the ship appeared in a music video for Madonna's song "Papa Don't Preach."

That same year, Miller took the "Sachem" on an extended voyage from New York to Cincinnati, traveling up the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes, Chicago, and finally down the Mississippi River to the Ohio River. Miller continued traveling with the boat until 1988, when he anchored it in a river near his Ohio River estate.

The vessel ran aground in the muddy riverbed. It never left. Miller sold the property years later, and in 2009, local kayakers came across the old boat. A restoration project is underway, but for now, this historic vessel continues where Miller left off. You can see its current status in this video published by Dubya Drones a few weeks ago: