USS Alcedo

USS Alcedo
History
United States
Name	USS Alcedo
Builder	D. and W. Henderson and Company, Glasgow
Launched	24 June 1895
Acquired	by purchase, 1 June 1917
Commissioned	28 July 1917
Stricken	17 December 1917
Fate	Sunk 5 November 1917
General characteristics
Type	Yacht
Displacement	981 long tons (997 t)
Length	275 ft (84 m)
Beam	31 ft (9.4 m)
Draft	16 ft 4 in (4.98 m)
Speed	12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h)
Complement	94 officers and enlisted
Armament	4 × 3 in (76 mm) guns, 2 × machine guns

USS Alcedo (SP-166) was a yacht in the United States Navy. She was the first American vessel lost in World War I.

Alcedo was built in 1895 at

Assigned to the Patrol Force, Alcedo departed Newport, Rhode Island on 5 August 1917. Steaming via Newfoundland and the Azores, the yacht arrived at Brest, France on the 30th. During her brief Navy career, the yacht conducted anti-submarine patrols and convoy-escort missions along the French coast. On two occasions, she rescued crew members of torpedoed merchantmen. On 17 October, the little warship picked up 118 men from the troop transport steamer SS Antilles, which had been sunk by a submerged German U-boat. Twelve days later, she saved another 85 survivors from SS Finland.

On the afternoon of 4 November, Alcedo departed

Alcedo's name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 17 December 1917.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Alcedo (SP-166).

• Photo gallery of USS Alcedo at NavSource Naval History

47°23′N 4°44′W / 47.383°N 4.733°W / 47.383; -4.733