USS Bagheera (SP-963)

History
United States
Name:	USS Bagheera
Namesake:	Previous name retained; Bagheera was the leopard or panther in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book
Builder:	Hodgdon Brothers, Boothbay, Maine
Completed:	1907
Acquired:	22 June 1917
Commissioned:	24 June 1917
Struck:	5 February 1919
Fate:	Returned to owner 5 February 1919
Notes:	Operated as private schooner Bagheera 1907-1917 and from 1919
General characteristics
Type:	Patrol vessel
Tonnage:	30 gross tons
Length:	66 ft 0 in (20.12 m)
Beam:	10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Draft:	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) mean
Propulsion:	Sails plus engine
Sail plan:	Schooner-rigged
Complement:	9
Armament:	2 × 1-pounder guns

USS Bagheera (SP-963) was a United States Navy auxiliary schooner that served as a patrol vessel. She was in commission from 1917 to 1919.

Bagheera was built in 1907 as a private schooner of the same name by Hodgdon Brothers at Boothbay, Maine. On 22 June 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired her under a free lease from her owner, J. W. Hendrick of Chicago, Illinois, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned as USS Bagheera (SP-963) with Ensign Nelson B. Wolfe, USNRF, in command.

Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Bagheera served on patrol duties through the end of World War I.

Bagheera was decommissioned at Norfolk, Virginia, after the war. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 5 February 1919 and returned to Hendrick the same day.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• SP-963 Bagheera at Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships -- Listed by Hull Number: "SP" #s and "ID" #s -- World War I Era Patrol Vessels and other Acquired Ships and Craft numbered from SP-900 through SP-999
• NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Bagheera (SP 963)