USS Absegami (SP-371)

Absegami (U.S. Motor Boat, 1916) photographed circa 1916–1917.
History
United States
Name:	USS Absegami
Namesake:	Name retained by the Navy
Owner:	Allen K. White, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Builder:	New York Yacht, Launch & Engine Company, New York City
Laid down:	date unknown
Launched:	date unknown
Christened:	as civilian motor boat Absegami
Completed:	1916 at New York City
Acquired:	officially leased (free lease) by the Navy 2 May 1917
Commissioned:	30 April 1917 as USS Absegami (SP-371) at the Philadelphia Navy Yard
Decommissioned:	2 December 1918
Struck:	December 1918 (est.)
Homeport:	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Cape May, New Jersey
Fate:	returned to her owner, 6 December 1918
General characteristics
Type:	Motorboat
Displacement:	not known
Length:	75’
Propulsion:	Gasoline engine
Speed:	13 knots
Complement:	not known
Armament:	One 1-pounder gun One AA machine gun

USS Absegami (SP-371) was a motorboat acquired on a free lease by the United States Navy during World War I. She was outfitted as an armed patrol craft and assigned to patrol the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Cape May, New Jersey on the Delaware Bay. When the Navy found her excess to their needs, she was returned to her former owner.

Built in New York

Absegami (SP-371) was a motor boat built in 1916 at New York City by the New York Yacht, Launch & Engine Co.; acquired by the Navy on free lease from her owner, Allen K. White, Atlantic City, New Jersey, on 2 May 1917; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 30 April 1917, Ensign W. G. Morse in command.

World War I service

Following her commissioning, Absegami was assigned to section patrol duty in the 4th Naval District. Throughout World War I, the boat patrolled the Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean waters off Cape May, New Jersey.

Decommissioning

Absegami was decommissioned at Philadelphia on 2 December 1918 and returned to her owner four days later.

See also

• United States Navy
• World War I

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• USS Absegami (SP-371), 1917–1918. Originally the Civilian Motor Boat Absegami

USS Absegami (SP-371) is at left center in this photograph of United States Navy patrol vessels at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 15 January 1919. Astern of Absegami is a section patrol boat identified only as SP-1595 (left background). Across the pier are the submarine chaser USS SC-23 (right background), and an unidentified submarine chaser (right foreground).