# @newport.mansions on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CVgZRS7P7xt
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/71767295-newportmansions-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f67b78253e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2021-10-26T21:01:15.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Newport Mansions (@newport.mansions) — https://gondola.cc/newport.mansions

## Caption

William Kissam Vanderbilt II, whose birthday is today, hailed from the Marble House branch of the family. He put two of his motor yachts at the service of the U.S. Navy during the world wars, and unfortunately, both were sunk. Willie K.’s Tarantula II (see photo), launched in 1913, was fast and sleek at 125 feet in length with a beam of just 10 feet. During World War I, it was leased to the Navy and operated as a patrol boat in the New York Harbor area. Vanderbilt commanded the boat as a lieutenant junior grade before being released from active duty in October 1917. A year later, just two weeks before the war ended, the Tarantula sank after colliding with a passenger steamship. Vanderbilt’s next naval contribution was the 264-foot diesel yacht Alva, named for his mother, which he donated to the Navy on November 4, 1941. Converted into a gunboat and commissioned as the USS Plymouth, it was sunk by a German submarine in August 1943.
 
 
#NewportMansions #MarbleHouse #tuesdaytrivia #twofortuesday #tuesdaythoughts #history #DiscoverNewport

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- **Likes:** 214
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## Tags

twofortuesday, history, tuesdaytrivia, tuesdaythoughts, marblehouse, discovernewport, newportmansions

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