USS Absegami

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.

Absegami, photographed c. 1916
History
United States
Name	Absegami
Namesake	Absegami were part of the Lenape tribe
Owner	Allen K. White, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Builder	New York Yacht, Launch & Engine Company, New York City
Launched	1916
Fate	turned over to the USN on free lease, 2 May 1917
USS Absegami (SP-371), photographed c. 1917
History
United States
Name	Absegami
Acquired	2 May 1917
Commissioned	30 April 1917
Decommissioned	2 December 1918
Fate	returned to owner, 6 December 1918
General characteristics [1]
Type	Motorboat
Tonnage	51 GRT
Length	75 ft (23 m) (overall) 70 ft 3 in (21.41 m) (waterline)
Beam	16 ft (4.9 m)
Draft	3 ft 6 in (1.07 m) (mean)
Installed power	2 × Heavy duty 6-cylinder gasoline engines 130 ihp (97 kW)
Propulsion	2 × propellers
Speed	13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Range	330 nmi (610 km; 380 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	1 officer 10 enlisted
Armament	1 × 1-pounder 37 mm (1.5 in) gun 1 × machine gun

Construction and career

Built in New York

Absegami 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 .^[2]

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

Gallery

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  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).