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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Related Content
Topic
  • DANFS (Dictionary of American Fighting Ships)
Document Type
  • Ship History
Wars & Conflicts
  • World War I 1917-1918
File Formats
Location of Archival Materials

Zipalong (S. P. 3)

1917

The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.

(S. P. 3: tonnage 30 (gross); length 78'0"; beam 11'2"; draft 4'0" (mean); speed 15.0 knots; complement 8; armament 1 machine gun)

Gansetta, a wooden hull single-screw motor boat built in 1907 at Boston, Mass., by George Lawley & Sons, was subsequently renamed Zipalong and acquired by the Navy in the spring of 1917 from Albert and Leonard Schwarz and W. W. Miller. Assigned the identificaton number S. P. 3, Zipalong was commissioned on 13 June 1917 at the Philadelphia [Pa.] Navy Yard, Ens. Frank A. Snow, USNRF, in command.

With her section base at Cape May, N.J., Zipalong conducted local patrols within the Fourth Naval District into the autumn of 1917. Decommissioned on 27 November 1917 at Philadelphia, a little over a fortnight after the Armistice ended the Great War [World War I], Zipalong was returned to her owners in early 1918 to resume civilian pursuits.

Robert J. Cressman

Updated, 21 March 2024

Published: Thu Mar 21 15:37:50 EDT 2024