National Museum of the U.S. Navy

In summer 1915, Under Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt started “the power squadrons” program when his superior was on vacation. Roosevelt called for the establishment of a special naval militia of civilian volunteers attached to the naval districts to man power boats. The next summer he Navy created the militia. That November, the Secretary of the Navy ordered the construction of 4 and 66-foot patrol boat prototypes. A. Loring Swasey designed the smaller version. Before America’s entry to World War I, George Lawley and Son of Neponset, Massachusetts, completed the 45-foot boat called C-253. Early experience proved that she was too small for naval duty.

Courtesy of Naval Sea Systems Command. 

This model is on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Bldg. 76., Bay 17, left side.