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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

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  • Ship History
Wars & Conflicts
  • World War I 1917-1918
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Venture I (S.P. 616)

1917-1919

The first Venture (S.P. 616) retained the name she carried at the time of her acquisition.

I

(S.P. 616: tonnage 48 (gross register); length 80'0" (overall); beam 13'0"; draft 4'0" (mean); speed 13.0 knots (maximum), 10.0 knots (cruising); complement 9; armament 1 3-pounder, 1 1-pounder)

The wooden-hulled, single-screw steam yacht Shadow, designed by F. D. Lawley and completed in 1916 at South Boston, Mass., by George Lawley and Sons Corp., and had been renamed Venture prior to her being acquired by the Navy under free lease from Mrs. Sarah L. Silsbee of Isleboro, Maine, on 28 April 1917 and commissioned the same day, CBM Zidon C. Long, USNRF, in command.

Attached to the Fifth Section, First Naval District, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Venture operated out of the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard through the end of the Great War [World War I], conducting security patrols and performing dispatch duties. Following the Armistice, she was decommissioned on 5 February 1919 and returned to her owner.

Updated, Robert J. Cressman

7 April 2022

Published: Thu Apr 07 09:21:27 EDT 2022