USS Itasca (SP-810)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Itasca.
Not to be confused with USS Itasca II (SP-803).
Itasca as a private motorboat in 1917, just prior to her United States Navy service.
History
United States
Name
  • USS Itasca (1917-1918)
  • USS SP-810 (1918-1919)
Namesake
  • Itasca was her previous name retained
  • SP-810 was her section patrol number
BuilderStamford Motor Construction Company, Stamford, Connecticut
Completed1908
Acquired10 August 1917[1]
CommissionedJuly 1917[2] or 18 August 1917[3]
RenamedSP-810 April 1918
FateReturned to owner 26 February 1919
NotesOperated as private motorboat Itasca 1908-1917 and from 1919
General characteristics
TypePatrol vessel employed as hospital boat
Tonnage42 Gross register tons
Length75 ft (23 m)
Beam15 ft (4.6 m)
Draft4 ft 6 in (1.37 m)
Speed12.5 knots
Complement11
Armament

The second USS Itasca (SP-810), later USS SP-810, was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919 which was employed as a hospital boat.

Itasca was built as a private wooden motorboat of the same name in 1908 by the Stamford Motor Construction Company at Stamford, Connecticut. In 1917, the U.S. Navy leased her from her owner, Henry Henke, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. Sources differ on her commissioning date, claiming both that the Navy took control of her from Henke at Norfolk, Virginia, on 10 August 1917 and commissioned her as USS Itasca (SP-810) on 18 August 1918,[4] and that she was commissioned in July 1917.[5]

Although armed for use as a patrol boat, Itasca served as a hospital boat in the Norfolk area for the rest of World War I and into early 1919. She was renamed USS SP-810 in April 1918.

SP-810 was returned to Henke on 26 February 1919.

  1. ^ Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/i3/itasca-ii.htm and NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Itasca (SP 810).
  2. ^ Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: Itasca (Motor Boat, 1908); Served as USS Itasca (SP-810) and USS SP-810, 1917-19.
  3. ^ Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/i3/itasca-ii.htm and NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Itasca (SP 810).
  4. ^ Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/i3/itasca-ii.htm and NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Itasca (SP 810).
  5. ^ Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: Itasca (Motor Boat, 1908); Served as USS Itasca (SP-810) and USS SP-810, 1917-19.