USS Spray (ID-2491)

Spray, probably prior to her U.S. Navy service.
History
United States
Name:	USS Spray
Namesake:	Previous name retained
Builder:	Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts
Completed:	1905
Acquired:	29 May 1918
Commissioned:	1 June 1918
Fate:	Returned to owner 4 March 1919
Notes:	Served as civilian fishing trawler Spray 1905-1917
General characteristics
Type:	Naval trawler (minesweeper)
Tonnage:	283 gross tons
Displacement:	500 tons
Length:	126 ft 6 in (38.56 m)
Beam:	22 ft (6.7 m)
Draft:	10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) mean
Sail plan:	Steam engine
Speed:	11 knots
Complement:	27
Armament:	1 × 6-pounder gun 2 × machine guns

USS Spray (ID-2491) was a United States Navy trawler which served as a minesweeper and was in commission from 1918 to 1919.

Fishing trawlers Foam (left), Ripple (center), and Spray (right), probably prior to their U.S. Navy service as naval trawlers and minesweepers USS Foam (ID-2496), USS Ripple (ID-2439), and USS Spray (ID-2491).

Spray was built as a civilian fishing trawler in 1905 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company at Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1917, the Russian Empire purchased Spray and the trawlers Foam and Ripple from the Bay State Fishing Company of Boston, Massachusetts, intending to place them in Imperial Russian Navy service during World War I, but the outbreak of the Russian Revolution that year prevented the three ships from leaving the United States.

On 29 May 1918, the U.S. Navy chartered all three ships from the Russian Government for World War I use. Spray was assigned Identification Number (Id. No.) 2491, placed under the control of the Commandant, 3rd Naval District, and commissioned on 1 June 1918 as USS Spray (ID-2491).

Spray operated in the 3rd Naval District for the remainder of World War I and into the months immediately following the end of the war, engaged in minesweeping duties off of New York City.

Spray was decommissioned in 1919 and returned to the Russian government on 4 March 1919.

Spray should not be confused with USS Spray II (SP-308), a motorboat ordered delivered to the U.S. Navy in 1917 for use as a patrol vessel but which the Navy never took over.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Navy History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: Spray (American Steam Trawler, 1905). Served as USS Spray (ID # 2491) in 1918-1919
• NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Spray (ID 2491)