USS Manatee (SP-51)

	Manatee in private prewar service
History
United States
Name:	USS Manatee
Namesake:	Previous name retained
Builder:	Graves Yacht Yard, Marblehead, Massachusetts
Completed:	1915
Acquired:	21 April 1917
Commissioned:	23 April 1917
Stricken:	By 1 July 1920
Notes:	In private use as motorboat Manatee 1915-1917
General characteristics
Type:	Patrol vessel
Tonnage:	2 tons
Length:	35 ft (11 m)
Beam:	8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Draft:	2 ft 3 in (0.69 m)
Propulsion:	Gasoline engine
Speed:	22 knots
Complement:	4
Armament:	1 × 1-pounder gun

The first USS Manatee (SP-51) was an armed motorboat that served as a United States Navy patrol vessel from 1917 until sometime shortly after World War I.

Manatee was built in 1915 for Lawrence F. Percival of the Corinthian Yacht Club of Boston as a wooden-hulled, gasoline-powered private motorboat of the same name designed by Samuel H. Brown of Marblehead, Massachusetts and built by Graves Yacht Yard of the same city.[1][2][lower-alpha 1] Percival sold the boat to J.B. Fallon in Fall of 1916.[4] The U.S. Navy acquired her for World War I service from her owner, J. B. Fallon,[4][5] on 21 April 1917, and commissioned her as patrol boat USS Manatee (SP-51) on 23 April 1917.[3]

Manatee was assigned to "distant service" in European waters, where she supported a flying boat detachment through the end of World War I.[3]

Records of Manatee's status after the Armistice with Germany of 11 November 1918 are lacking, but she presumably returned to the United States for decommissioning and disposal. As of 1 July 1920 her name no longer appeared on the Navy List.[3]

Footnotes

The online Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships states that Manatee was built by "Brown Bros. Shipyard, Tottenville, Staten Island, N.Y.",[3] evidently confusing the designer, Samuel H. Brown, with A. C. Brown & Sons shipyard of Tottenville.

Reference

Fowle, Leonard M. (20 September 1915). "Italia Victor in Stern Chase". The Boston Globe. p. 6.
"Yachts and Yachtsmen". The Boston Sunday Globe. 10 October 1915. p. 33.
"Manatee I (S. P. 51)". Naval History and Heritage Command. United States Navy. 9 February 2016.
Aldridge, Arthur F., ed. (July 1917). "Spokes from the Rudder Wheel". The Rudder: A Magazine for Yachtsmen. Vol. 33 no. 7. The Rudder Publishing Company. p. 504.
Aldridge, Arthur F., ed. (August 1917). "Yachts in Government Service". The Rudder: A Magazine for Yachtsmen. Vol. 33 no. 8. The Rudder Publishing Company. p. 558.

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[4] The online Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships states that Manatee was built by "Brown Bros. Shipyard, Tottenville, Staten Island, N.Y.",[3] evidently confusing the designer, Samuel H. Brown, with A. C. Brown & Sons shipyard of Tottenville.

[bostonglobe_20sep1915-1] Fowle, Leonard M. (20 September 1915). "Italia Victor in Stern Chase". The Boston Globe. p. 6.

[bostonglobe_10oct1915-2] "Yachts and Yachtsmen". The Boston Sunday Globe. 10 October 1915. p. 33.

[danfs_manatee-3] "Manatee I (S. P. 51)". Naval History and Heritage Command. United States Navy. 9 February 2016.

[rudder_jul1917_p504-5] Aldridge, Arthur F., ed. (July 1917). "Spokes from the Rudder Wheel". The Rudder: A Magazine for Yachtsmen. Vol. 33 no. 7. The Rudder Publishing Company. p. 504.

[6] Aldridge, Arthur F., ed. (August 1917). "Yachts in Government Service". The Rudder: A Magazine for Yachtsmen. Vol. 33 no. 8. The Rudder Publishing Company. p. 558.