Letter B as a private motorboat, probably at the time of her acquisition by the United States Navy in May 1917.
History
United States
NameUSS Letter B
NamesakePrevious name retained
BuilderElectric Launch Company (ELCO), Bayonne, New Jersey
Completed1912
Acquired7 May 1917
Commissioned20 October 1917
FateReturned to owner 29 April 1919
NotesOperated as private motorboat Letter B 1912-1917 and from 1919
General characteristics
TypePatrol vessel
Length40 ft (12 m)
Beam6 ft (1.8 m)
Draft2 ft (0.61 m)
PropulsionGasoline engine, one shaft
Speed30 knots
Complement3
ArmamentNone
Letter B as a private motorboat, hauled out of the water sometime between 1912 and 1917.

USS Letter B (SP-732) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919.

Letter B was built in 1912 as a private "runabout"-type motorboat of the same name by the Electric Launch Company (ELCO) at Bayonne, New Jersey. On 7 May 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired her under a free lease from her owner, C. Chester Eaton of Brockton, Massachusetts, for use as a section patrol vessel during World War I. Enrolled in the Naval Coast Defense Reserve on 10 May 1917, she was commissioned as USS Letter B (SP-732) on 20 October 1917 at Norfolk, Virginia.

Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Letter B served as a harbor and shore patrol boat at Norfolk and Hampton Roads, Virginia, for the rest of World War I . She also served as a duty and emergency boat for seaplanes at Naval Air Station Norfolk.

The Navy returned Letter B to Eaton on 29 April 1919.

References

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