USS Estelle explained

USS Estelle (SP-747), later USS SP-747, was a United States Navy patrol vessel commissioned in 1917 and stricken in 1933.

Estelle was built as a private motorboat of the same name. The U.S. Navy acquired her in 1917^[1] for use as a section patrol vessel in World War I. She apparently was commissioned that year as USS Estelle (SP-747).

Little information is available regarding Estelles naval career. Apparently she saw service as a section patrol boat somewhere along the coast of the United States for the rest of World War I. She was renamed USS SP-747 sometime in 1918.^[2]

On 23 June 1919, a dispatch directed the Commandant, 3rd Naval District, to ship SP-747 and the patrol boat to the Culver Naval School in Culver, Indiana.^[3] Like Ahdeek, she presumably operated there on loan from the Navy for many years,^[4] because she was not stricken from the Navy Directory until sometime in 1933,^[5] the same year Ahdeek was stricken.^[6]

References

• (for USS Ahdeek)
• SP-747 Estelle at Navy History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships -- Listed by Hull Number: "SP" #s and "ID" #s -- World War I Era Patrol Vessels and other Acquired Ships and Craft numbered from SP-700 through SP-799
• SP-747 Estelle at NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft (SP) and Civilian Vessels (ID) Index

Notes and References

1. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/shusn-no/spid0700.htm SP-747 Estelle at Navy History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships -- Listed by Hull Number: "SP" #s and "ID" #s -- World War I Era Patrol Vessels and other Acquired Ships and Craft numbered from SP-700 through SP-799
2. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/shusn-no/spid0700.htm SP-747 Estelle at Navy History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships -- Listed by Hull Number: "SP" #s and "ID" #s -- World War I Era Patrol Vessels and other Acquired Ships and Craft numbered from SP-700 through SP-799
3. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a4/ahdeek.htm.
4. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a4/ahdeek.htm.
5. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/shusn-no/spid0700.htm SP-747 Estelle at Navy History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships -- Listed by Hull Number: "SP" #s and "ID" #s -- World War I Era Patrol Vessels and other Acquired Ships and Craft numbered from SP-700 through SP-799
6. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a4/ahdeek.htm.