USS Welcome

USS Welcome (SP-1175) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918 or 1919.

Welcome as a private motorboat sometime between 1914 and 1917, seen on a card advertising her for hire as a sightseeing boat on the Saint Louis River.

USS Welcome (SP-1175) sometime between 1917 and 1919.
History
United States
Name	USS Welcome
Namesake	Previous name retained
Completed	1914
Acquired	7 August 1917
Commissioned	17 August 1917
Stricken	7 March 1919
Fate	Returned to owner 7 March 1919
Notes	Operated as private motorboat Welcome 1914–1917 and from 1919
General characteristics
Type	Patrol vessel
Tonnage	4 gross register tons
Length	40 ft 0 in (12.19 m)
Beam	8 ft 0 in (2.44 m)
Draft	2 ft 6 in (0.76 m) mean
Speed	18.0 knots maximum
Complement	6
Armament	none

Welcome was built as a private open-cockpit motorboat of the same name at Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1914. She was used as a commercial sightseeing boat on the Saint Louis River.

On 7 August 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired her under a free lease from her owner, R. H. Wilcox of Detroit, Michigan, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned as USS Welcome (SP-1175) on 17 August 1917.

Welcome operated on patrol duties on the Great Lakes until the annual icing over of the lakes ended the 1917 shipping season, when the patrol boat USS Betty M. II (SP-623) towed her to the American Boat Company dock at Detroit, Michigan, in late November 1917 for seasonal lay-up. She returned to service after the spring thaw in 1918, and patrolled until the end of the 1918 shipping season in November 1918.

Welcome was returned to Wilcox on 7 March 1919 and stricken from the Navy Directory the same day.

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be found here and here.
• Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Welcome (SP-1175), 1917–1919. Originally the civilian motor boat Welcome (1914)
• Photo gallery of USS Welcome at NavSource Naval History

Welcome in port, apparently around the time of her August 1917 acquisition by the United States Navy.