USS Actus

Soon after the United States entered World War I, Actus (SP-516) — a yacht constructed in 1907 at Neponset, Massachusetts, by George Lawley & Sons — was taken over by the US Navy as a section patrol craft from Mr. E. B. Dane; commissioned on 1 April 1917, with Ensign H. A. D. Cameron, USNR, in command; and, on 26 May 1917, over a month later, formally purchased by the Government.^[3]

USS Actus (SP-516)
History
Name	Halawa[1] Actus (1910)
Owner	Raymond Hoagland[1] George W. Childs Drexel (1910) E. B. Dane (1910–1917)[2] U.S. Navy 1917 U.S. Army 1920
Builder	George Lawley and Sons, Neponset, MA
Launched	1907
Acquired	26 May 1917, $40,000[2]
Commissioned	18 April 1917
Decommissioned	8 July 1919
Stricken	17 July 1919
General characteristics
Displacement	99 tons
Length	120 ft 0 in (36.58 m) LOA [2] 107 ft 8 in (32.82 m) Registered
Beam	15 ft (4.6 m)
Draft	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Propulsion	steam
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	23
Armament	two 3-pounders

Assigned to the 1st Naval District, Actus spent the entire war patrolling Cape Cod Bay and the harbors of Boston and Plymouth. After the war ended in November 1918, she continued to serve the Navy at the Boston Navy Yard in some type of yard craft status. She also performed some unspecified service for the Naval Overseas Transportation Service office at Boston in May and June 1919. She was decommissioned at Quincy, Mass., on 8 July 1919. A little over a year later, on 20 July 1920, she was transferred to the War Department. Presumably, her name was struck from the Navy list at about the same time.^[3]

The vessel was an Engineer Corps survey boat based in Savannah, Georgia in 1921.^[4]

References

1. "Yachts Change Hands". Forest and Stream. Vol. LXXIV, no. 14. April 2, 1910. p. 543.
2. Construction & Repair Bureau (Navy) (November 1, 1918). Ships' Data U.S. Naval Vessels. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 266.
3. Naval History And Heritage Command. "Actus". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History And Heritage Command.
4. Fifty-Third Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, Year ended June 30, 1921. Washington, D.C.: Department of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation. 1921. p. 544.

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Actus (SP 516)