Vaud J. (S.P. 3361)
1917-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this small craft at the time of her acquisition.
(S.P. 3361: tonnage 63 (gross register); length 101'0"; beam 19'8"; draft 4'6" (mean); speed 8.6 knots; complement 8; armament none)
Prior to the Great War [World War I], Vaud J., a wooden-hulled cabin motor launch built in 1907 at Wildwood, N.J., by Thomas Johnson, was owned by A. L. Dunn, of Govans, Md. The Navy inspected the motor boat on 8 April 1917 and deemed her "not suitable for either Army or Navy use." Apparently, the Navy later revised its appraisal since it again inspected the craft on 23 September 1918 at Bear Creek, near Baltimore, Md.
Acquired by the Navy soon thereafter, Vaud J. was taken over by the Navy on 27 September 1918 but not commissioned. Given the identification number S.P. 3361, Vaud J. was assigned to the Bureau of Ordnance and towed to the Naval Proving Ground at Indian Head, Md., by the tug Tioga and operated there in connection with range construction work into the spring of 1919.
Sold on 30 June 1919 and simultaneously stricken from the Navy Register, Vaud J. became the property of the Chesapeake Water Supply Co. She was carried on lists of U.S. merchant vessels into the early 1920s, but her owner was not listed. From 1924 to 1929, the craft was owned by Hurley Booye of Cape May, N.J., until either late 1929 or early 1930 when she was purchased by Harry Mogok of Cape May. Vaud J. operated until 1932, when her name disappears from the mercantile listings.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
11 April 2022
