History
United States
NameUSS Lady Betty
NamesakePrevious name retained
BuilderMatthews Boat Company, Port Clinton, Ohio
Completed1913
Acquired
  • Chartered 28 May 1917
  • Delivered 11 June 1917
Commissioned25 June 1917
Decommissioned25 November 1918
FateReturned to owner 9 December 1918
NotesOperated as private motorboat Chatana and Lady Betty 1913–1917 and Lady Betty or Chatana [1] from 1918
General characteristics
TypePatrol vessel
Tonnage16 gross register tons
Length48 ft (15 m)
Beam10 ft 3 in (3.12 m)
Draft3 ft (0.91 m)
Speed10 knots
Complement6
Armament1 × .30-caliber (7.62-mm) machine gun

USS Lady Betty (SP-661) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918.

Lady Betty was built as the private motorboat Chatana by the Matthews Boat Company at Port Clinton, Ohio, in 1913. She was later renamed Lady Betty.

On 28 May 1917, the U.S. Navy chartered Lady Betty from her owner, Frank S. Washburn, Jr., of Rye, New York, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. The Navy took delivery of Lady Betty on 11 June 1917 at Newport, Rhode Island, and she was commissioned as USS Lady Betty (SP-661) on 25 June 1917.

Assigned to the 2nd Naval District in southern New England, Lady Betty carried out patrol duties in Newport Harbor and along the coast of Narragansett Bay for the rest of World War I.

Lady Betty was decommissioned on 25 November 1918 and returned to Washburn on 9 December 1918. It is unclear whether she bore the name Lady Betty or Chatana after her return to him.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l1/lady_betty.htm states ambiguously that USS Lady Betty "resumed her former name' upon return to her owner, without making it clear whether she returned to her originally private name of Chatana or to the private name she held before her commissioning, which was Lady Betty. NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Lady Betty (SP 661) interprets this as meaning that she returned to the name Chatana after being returned to her owner; while this is possible, it was unusual for a boat upon return to her owner to revert to a name earlier than the one she had upon commissioning and often bestowed by an earlier owner.
  2. ^ The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l1/lady_betty.htm states ambiguously that USS Lady Betty "resumed her former name' upon return to her owner, without making it clear whether she returned to her original name of Chatana or to the private name she held before her commissioning, which was Lady Betty. NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Lady Betty (SP 661) interprets this as meaning that she returned to the name Chatana after being returned to her owner; while this is possible, it was unusual for a boat upon return to her owner to revert to a name earlier than the one she had upon commissioning and often bestowed by an earlier owner.

References

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