USS Akbar (SP-599)

Akbar underway before her U.S. Navy service in World War I
History
United States
Name:	USS Akbar (SP-599)
Namesake:	Akbar the Great
Builder:	Mathis Yacht Building Company Camden, New Jersey
Completed:	1915
Acquired:	17 May 1917
Commissioned:	31 May 1917
Decommissioned:	17 January 1919
Struck:	2 October 1919
Fate:	Sold, 2 January 1920; ultimate fate unknown
General characteristics
Type:	patrol boat
Displacement:	125 t
Length:	72 ft 6 in (22.10 m)
Beam:	11 ft 6 in (3.51 m)
Draft:	3 ft 4 in (1.02 m)
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h)
Complement:	11
Armament:	2 × machine guns

USS Akbar (SP-599) (possibly meaning "great" in Arabic) was a wooden patrol boat in the service of the United States Navy during World War I. She was purchased by the Navy for patrol duties during the conflict and was sold at war's end. Her ultimate fate is unknown.

Military career

Akbar was a wooden-hulled yacht built by the Mathis Yacht Building Company of Camden, New Jersey, in 1915. The State of Maine purchased the yacht from her owner, George W. C. Drexel of Philadelphia, and then lent her the section commander at Bath, Maine. The U.S. Navy purchased the craft on 17 May 1917 and placed her in commission on 31 May 1917, with Quartermaster 1st Class Robert A. Webster in command.

After commissioning, the boat was assigned to the 1st Naval District. Akbar carried out harbor patrol duty in the Rockland, Maine, section until May 1918 when she was shifted to the Portland, Maine, section. The former yacht served on patrol duty in that area through the end of World War I in November 1918.

Akbar was decommissioned on 17 January 1919. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 2 October 1919, and she was sold on 2 January 1920 to F. Chester Everett of Maiden, Massachusetts.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• Photo gallery of Akbar at NavSource Naval History