Kanawha II (S. P. 130)
1917-1918
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(S. P. 130: displacement 575; length 227'0" (overall), 192'0" (between perpendiculars); beam 24'5"; draft 9'8" (mean); speed 20.0 knots (maximum), 13.5 knots (cruising); complement 65; armament 4 3-inch, 1 6-pounder, 2 machine guns)
Kanawha II -- a twin-screw, steel-hulled yacht built in 1899 at Morris Heights, N.Y., by the Gas Engine & Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury Co. -- was acquired by the Navy from her owner, John Borden, on 28 April 1917; and commissioned the same day with the identification number S. P. 130, Lt. Cmdr. John Borden, USNRF, in command.
During her first three weeks of naval service, Kanawha II performed various duties in the New York area. Then outfitted for distant service, she got underway, for Europe, on 9 June 1917. She arrived at Brest, France, on 4 July 1917, U.S. Independence Day, in the vanguard of the flotilla of ships of war sent to European waters following the entry of the United States into the Great War [World War I].
Two weeks after her arrival she began patrol off Brest. On 3 September 1917, she sighted her first enemy periscope off the French coast, but was unable to press an attack. Toward the end of November, on the 28th, she sighted another closing on a convoy. She issued a submarine warning and the U-boat was later tracked and sunk by two other patrol vessels equipped with depth bombs. The convoy continued undamaged.
Kanawha II was renamed Piqua (q.v.) on 1 March 1918.
Interim Update, Robert J. Cressman
6 August 2024
