Artmar III, a wooden-hulled motorboat built in 1912 by F. S. Nock, boatbuilder, of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, was acquired by the Navy from C. M. Dunbar on 22 May 1917. Assigned the identification number SP-408, Artmar III was commissioned on 24 May 1917, Ens. Edward E. Silvey, USNRF, in command.
During the remainder of World War I, Artmar III performed local patrol duties out of the section base at New Bedford, Mass., until two weeks after the armistice of 11 November 1918.
Decommissioned on 18 February 1919 and struck from the Navy list on 11 April of the same year, Artmar III (sometimes referred to simply as Artmar) was withdrawn from the sale list on 12 April; allocated to the Customs Service, Treasury Department; and turned over to the Coast Guard at Newport, R.I., on 15 September 1919. On 16 December 1919, Artmar was renamed Dash. Over the next four years, except for brief periods spent out of commission (presumably for repairs or alterations), the craft served on permanent stations at Buzzard's Bay, Mass., and Charleston, S.C., before being renamed AB-5 on 6 November 1923.
AB-5 departed from Charleston on 1 April 1924 and proceeded to the Coast Guard Depot, South Baltimore, Md., for engine tests. Completing repairs by 6 September, the harbor launch next shifted to the Nation's capital and, together with the tug Apache, patrolled the races held by the Capital and Corinthian Yacht Clubs of Washington, D.C.
Returning to Charleston on 20 November 1924, she relieved AB-7 (the former Lookout and Miss Anne II (SP-657)), on station. On the day before Christmas 1924, AB-5 received heavy damage and apparently performed little active service over the next nine years. The next time she is mentioned in records comes in a Headquarters, United States Coast Guard letter of 13 June 1933 to the Commander of the Jacksonville (Fla.) division, directing the transfer of AB-5 to Base 6, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for decommissioning at the "earliest possible date."
Surveyed at Base 6 on 23 July 1933, AB-5 was sold to A. P. Crooks of Ft. Lauderdale on 19 September 1933.
