Edithena (S.P. 624)
1917-1919
The Navy retained the name carried by this craft at the time of her acquisition.
(S.P. 624: register tonnage 57 (gross); length 75'0" (overall); beam 15'0"; draft 3'9" (mean) ; speed 12.0 knots (cruising).; complement 11; armament 1 1-pounder, 1 machine gun)
Edithena, a twin-screw, wooden-hulled motor boat built by the Gas Engine & Power Co., and the C.L. Seabury Co., Morris Heights, N.Y., in 1914, was purchased from L. Q. White, her owner, soon after the U.S. entered the Great War [World War I]. Delivered to the Navy on 11 June 1917, Edithena, given the identification number S.P. 624 and earmarked for section patrol duty, was commissioned on 20 June 1917, Boatswain Uriah L. Norton, USNRF, in command.
Assigned to the First Naval District, Edithena performed patrol duty out of Boston, Mass., for the remainder of the Great War and into 1919. Stricken from the Navy List on 21 October 1919, she was subsequently transferred to the Bureau of Fisheries, which renamed her Widgeon.
The Navy acquired Widgeon from the Interior Department in 1942. Classified as a district patrol vessel (YP), she received the designation YP-200, and served as such through the end of hostilities with the Axis in 1945, after which she was returned to the Fish and Wildlife Service that December.
Paul M. Devenport of Seattle, Wash., acquired the former patrol vessel in 1947 for employment as a fishing boat.
