Warren J. Courtney
Warren J. Courtney, a wooden-hulled steam fishing craft of the "Menhaden Fisherman" design built in 1912 by Jackson and Sharpe, boatbuilders, of Wilmington, Del., was acquired by the Navy from the C. E. Davis Packing Co. of Reedville, Va., on 28 May 1917. Before Warren J. Courtney, designated SP-375, entered commissioned service, the Navy shortened her compound name to the surname only under the terms of General Order No. 314 promulgated on 28 July 1917. The erstwhile fishing craft thus became Courtney (SP-375).
Commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Va., on 10 August 1917, for service as a convoy escort and patrol craft for "distant service," Courtney was fitted out and then sailed for France. She convoyed and escorted transports and supply ships, operating out of Brest, France, as a unit of the Patrol Force, until operational difficulties, unseaworthiness, resulted in the restriction of the "Menhaden" trawlers to minesweeping and coastal duties. Proved unfit for the role for which she had been acquired, Courtney operated as a minesweeper for the rest of her career and through the end of World War I. While operating off the coast of France in the spring of 1919, she foundered and sank on 27 April 1919. She was struck from the Navy list the same day.
