 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | USS Whippet |
| Namesake: | Previous name retained |
| Builder: | Greenport Basin and Construction Company, Greenport, New York |
| Completed: | 1917 |
| Acquired: | 9 July 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 24 July 1917 |
| Decommissioned: | 11 January 1919 |
| Struck: | 11 January 1919 |
| Fate: | Returned to owner 11 January 1919 |
| Notes: | Operated as private motorboat Whippet 1917 and from 1919 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Patrol vessel |
| Displacement: | 21 tons |
| Length: | 72 ft (22 m) |
| Beam: | 12 ft (3.7 m) |
| Draft: | 3 ft 3 in (0.99 m) aft |
| Speed: | 23 knots |
| Complement: | 11 |
| Armament: |
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The first USS Whippet (SP-89) was an armed motorboat that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919.
A motorboat, speedboat, or powerboat is a boat which is powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gearbox and the propeller in one portable unit.
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the Navy is the third largest of the service branches. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the second-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force.
Whippet was a civilian motorboat completed in 1917 by Greenport Basin and Construction Company at Greenport on Long Island, New York. On 9 July 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired her from her owner, Mr. O. C. Jennings of New York City, for World War I service as a patrol boat. She was commissioned as USS Whippet (SP-89) on 24 July 1917.
In general, a civilian is "a person who is not a member of the military or of a police or firefighting force". The definition distinguishes from persons whose duties involves risking their lives to protect the public at large from hazardous situations such as terrorism, riots, conflagrations, or wars. It also does not include "criminals" in the category, as authorities and the media wants to distinguish between those who are law-abiding and those who are not.
The Greenport Basin and Construction Company, known by various names throughout its history, but most recently named the Greenport Yacht & Shipbuilding Company, is a shipbuilder in Greenport, Suffolk County, New York. It was established in the 19th century by brothers Pliny C. Brigham and Theodore W. Brigham. One local history relates:
Greenport prospered due to the menhaden industry; 64 boats were in service and seven under construction in 1879. By this time, shipbuilding boomed in Greenport. The Greenport Basin and Construction Company, famous yacht builders, became a large repair and docking facility for menhaden vessels. Menhaden vessels or "bunker boats" were said to have lined the shoreline along Main and Front Streets.
Greenport is a village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is on the north fork of Long Island. The population was 2,197 at the 2010 census.
Whippet conducted antisubmarine and coastal defense patrols in the 2nd Naval District in southern New England during World War I.
Coastal defenceand coastal fortification are measures taken to provide protection against military attack at or near a coastline, for example, fortifications and coastal artillery. Because an invading enemy normally requires a port or harbour to sustain operations, such defences are usually concentrated around such facilities, or places where such facilities could be constructed. Coastal artillery fortifications generally followed the development of land fortifications, usually incorporating land defences; sometimes separate land defence forts were built to protect coastal forts. Through the middle 19th century, coastal forts could be bastion forts, star forts, polygonal forts, or sea forts, the first three types often with detached gun batteries called "water batteries". Coastal defence weapons throughout history were heavy naval guns or weapons based on them, often supplemented by lighter weapons. In the late 19th century separate batteries of coastal artillery replaced forts in some countries; in some areas these became widely separated geographically through the mid-20th century as weapon ranges increased. The amount of landward defence provided began to vary by country from the late 19th century; by 1900 new US forts almost totally neglected these defences. Booms were also usually part of a protected harbor's defences. In the middle 19th century underwater minefields and later controlled mines were often used, or stored in peacetime to be available in wartime. With the rise of the submarine threat at the beginning of the 20th century, anti-submarine nets were used extensively, usually added to boom defences, with major warships often being equipped with them through early World War I. In World War I railway artillery emerged and soon became part of coastal artillery in some countries; with railway artillery in coast defence some type of revolving mount had to be provided to allow tracking of fast-moving targets.
New England is a geographical and cultural region composed of six states of the northeastern United States: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north, respectively. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Boston is New England's largest city as well as the capital of Massachusetts. The largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston with nearly a third of the entire region's population, which also includes Worcester, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island.
On 11 January 1919, Whippet was decommissioned. She was stricken from the Navy List and returned to her owner the same day.
A Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a country.
