USS Arawan II, a 71-foot patrol boat, was built in 1912 at Essington, Pennsylvania, as a pleasure craft with the same name. In 1916, as the Navy began to survey and register privately-owned vessels for possible use as section patrol craft, she received the registry number SP-1, the first in a numerical series that would ultimately include more than four-thousand boats and ships. Her owner, Charles Longstreth of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, had her painted grey and used her in exercises that were part of the Preparedness Movement that preceded direct U.S. involvement in the First World War.
The Navy formally took over Arawan II in March 1917, a short time before the U.S. declared war on Germany, and placed her in commission in April, with her owner, now on active duty with U.S. Naval Reserve Force, as Commanding Officer. She had patrol duty in the Delaware River and Delaware Bay area for the next year and a half. In late November 1918, a few weeks after the Armistice ended the fighting, USS Arawan II was decommissioned and returned to Mr. Longstreth.
This page features the only views we have of USS Arawan II (SP-1) and the civilian motor boat Arawan II
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 24 June 2003
New image added 28 March 2004