A Stylish Veteran of Two Wars
The Cythera did not look like a warship that cold day in January 1942, but one could see signs of her service. Lying pier-side at Philadelphia Navy Yard, decked out in white paint and ornate gilt scrollwork, she looked every bit the steam yacht that had, as a correspondent for Yachting once wrote, "poked her bow into ports the world over." On closer inspection, however, one could see the alphanumeric designation on her hull, SP-575, with an arrow running fore and aft through the letters and numbers—markings similar to those of gigs assigned individual commanding officers, or chiefs of staff without flag rank. Her tall, raked stack carried two inverted chevrons, a badge of honor reflecting arduous convoy-escort service for the U.S. Navy in World War I.