USS Wasp (SP-1159)

History
United States
Name	USS Wasp
Namesake	In naming SP-1159 "Wasp", the Navy honors six previous ships, dating to the American Revolution, which have borne this illustrious name.
Builder	Superior Shipbuilding Company
Completed	1910
Acquired	29 June 1917
Fate	Returned to owner 3 November 1917
General characteristics
Type	Steel-hulled motorboat
Length	40 ft 0 in (12.19 m)
Beam	9 ft 0 in (2.74 m)
Draft	2 ft 9 in (0.84 m) mean
Speed	12 knots
Complement	5 men
Armament	1 × 1-pounder gun

Although not officially counted among the ten U.S. Navy ships named Wasp because she was never entered into the Naval Vessel Register, a steel-hulled motorboat named USS Wasp (SP-1159) performed patrol duties under lease to the U.S. Navy in 1917.

Wasp was built in 1910 at the Superior Shipbuilding Company and was owned by W. S. Pattison of Duluth, Minnesota, in 1917, when the U.S. Navy inspected the ship, in the 9th Naval District, for possible service. Wasp was acquired by the Navy on a free-lease basis on 29 June 1917 and was assigned the classification SP-1159 but was never listed in the Naval Vessel Register. She was used as a patrol craft by the 9th Naval District—at the time a part of a single administrative entity called the "9th, 10th, and 11th Naval Districts"—and operated on the Great Lakes until returned to her owner on 3 November 1917.

References[]

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.