USS Akela (SP-1793)

Underway prior to World War I.
History
United States
Name:	USS Akela (SP-1793)
Builder:	Gas Engine and Power Co. and the Charles L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, N.Y.
Launched:	1899
Acquired:	24 December 1917
Commissioned:	16 April 1918
Struck:	15 May 1919
Fate:	Scrapped in 1935
General characteristics
Displacement:	72 t
Length:	117 ft 6 in (35.81 m)
Beam:	14 ft 6 in (4.42 m)
Draft:	4 ft 8 in (1.42 m)
Propulsion:	two triple-expansion engines, two shafts
Speed:	12 knots (22 km/h)
Complement:	15
Armament:	none

The wooden-hulled, twin-screw, steam yacht Akela—built in 1899 at Morris Heights, N.Y., by the Gas Engine and Power Co. and the Charles L. Seabury Co.—was acquired by the Navy from Bridgeport, Connecticut businessman Henry Alfred Bishop and delivered on 24 December 1917. Redesignated USS Akela (SP-1793) was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 16 April 1918, Chief Boatswain's Mate John J. Stegin, USNRF, in charge.

Assigned to the Armed Guard Inspection Board of the 3d Naval District, Akela took inspection parties to various merchant ships with embarked armed guard detachments over the next several months. Entering the Seabury yard at Morris Heights on 6 November, Akela was still there, undergoing repairs, when the armistice was signed on the 11th November 1918. She remained there, inactive and "awaiting orders", into the spring of 1919. The last formal entry in the ship's log, dated 15 April, does not report a formal decommissioning. In any case, the ship was returned to her owner on that day and stricken from the Navy list exactly one month later.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: Akela (American Steam Yacht, 1899).Served as USS Akela (SP-1793) in 1918–1919
• NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Akela (SP 1793)