USS Mikawe (SP-309)

300px Mikawe as a private motorboat sometime in 1916 or 1917, prior to her U.S. Navy service.
History
United States
Name:	USS Mikawe
Namesake:	Previous name retained
Builder:	Defoe Boat and Motor Works, Bay City, Michigan
Completed:	1916
Acquired:	10 August 1917
Commissioned:	10 August 1917
Fate:	Transferred to United States Coast and Geodetic Survey 24 April 1919
Notes:	Served as civilian motorboat Mikawe 1916-1917 and as U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey launch USC&GS Mikawe 1920-1939; destroyed by fire 27 October 1939
General characteristics
Type:	Patrol vessel
Length:	65 ft (20 m)
Beam:	14 ft (4.3 m)
Draft:	3 ft 9 in (1.14 m) mean
Installed power:	75 horsepower (0.1 megawatt)
Propulsion:	Gasoline engine
Speed:	11.6 knots
Complement:	9
Armament:	2 × 1-pounder guns 2 × machine guns

USS Mikawe (SP-309) was an armed motorboat that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919.

Mikawe was built as a civilian wooden-hulled motorboat of the same name in 1916 by Defoe Boat and Motor Works at Bay City, Michigan. The U.S. Navy purchased her from her owner, Thomas H. Gill, for $12,500 (USD) on 10 August 1917 for World War I service as a patrol vessel and commissioned her the same day as USS Mikawe (SP-309).

Assigned to the 9th Naval District -- at the time a part of the single administrative entity known as the 9th, 10th, and 11th Naval Districts -- Mikawe served as a section patrol boat on the Great Lakes for the rest of World War I.

On 24 April 1919, Mikawe was transferred to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, in which she served from 1920 to 1939 as USC&GS Mikawe.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center: Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: Mikawe (Motor Boat, 1916). Served as USS Mikawe (SP-309) in 1917-1919
• NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Mikawe (SP 309)