High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Aphrodite (SP-135) was an armed yacht that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919. Aphrodite was built as a civilian yacht in 1899 by Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine. The U.S. Navy acquired her from her owner, Colonel O. H. Payne of New York City, on 11 May 1917 for use as a patrol vessel during World War I. She was commissioned at New York City on 5 June 1917 as USS Aphrodite (SP-135) with Lieutenant Commander Ralph P. Craft in command. On 14 June 1917, Aphrodite set out for Europe in the escort of the first convoy carrying elements of the American Expeditionary Force to the battlefields in France. She arrived at St. Nazaire, France, on 27 June 1917.