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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Atlantis (SP 40)

Motorboat:

  • Built in 1911 by the Greenport Basin and Construction Co., Greenport, Long Island, NY
  • Acquired by the Navy 2 July 1917
  • Commissioned 27 September 1917
  • Decommissioned 7 May 1919
  • Struck from the Navy list 7 July 1919
  • Sold 30 October 1919
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 31 t.
  • Length 60.9'
  • Beam 12' 6"
  • Draft 4' 6"
  • Speed 9 kts.
  • Complement - Nine
  • Armament: One .30 cal. machine gun
  • Propulsion: One 50ihp Standard 4-cylinder gasoline engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Atlantis 116k Photographed prior to her World War I Navy service
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 99339    		 Robert Hurst
    Atlantis 107k Passing USS Maine (Battleship No. 10), prior to World War I
    Photographed by Paul Thompson, New York
    U.S. Navy photo NH 95862    		 Naval Historical Center
    Atlantis 129k Expanded view of the powerboat Atlantis, part of the "Mosquito Fleet." The Atlantis was one of privately owned boats that were used by the U.S. Navy to patrol the area around New York and Long Island and is shown alongside the U.S.S. Maine (BB-10) during a week of naval maneuvers in the New York area in September 1916
    Library of Congress photo LC-B2-3968-11    		 Mike Green
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships:

    Atlantis

    The mythical "lost continent" supposedly engulfed by the Atlantic Ocean.

    Atlantis-a wooden-hulled motorboat built in 1911 at Greenport, Long Island, N.Y., by the Greenport Basin and Construction Co.-was acquired by the Navy from Leonard H. Dyer of New York City, on 2 July 1917. Slated for service as a section patrol boat, the boat was designated SP-40 and was commissioned on 27 September 1917, Chief Boatswain Edward Cunningham, USNRF, in command.

    Atlantis patrolled the waters of the 3d Naval District, based chiefly at the Black Rock Yacht Club, Bridgeport, Conn., the headquarters of the 2d Section, 3d District, into the spring of 1918. Departing that district on 31 May 1918, she traveled up the Hudson to Troy, where she entered the Erie Canal on 2 June. Ports of call on her voyage to the Great Lakes included Utica, Baldswinville, Rochester, and Buffalo, N.Y. After entering Lake Erie she visited: Erie, Pa.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Detroit and Port Huron, Mich., before she finally reached Sault Sainte Marie on 8 July.

    Atlantis conducted patrols in the waters of the Detroit section of the 9th Naval District into the summer and fall, spending much of her time patrolling the "detour passage" off Pipe Island, warning steamers to stay clear of dangerous waters in the vicinity. She commenced her voyage to return to the 3d Naval District on 12 November 1918, the day after the armistice was ending the fighting of World War I. She arrived at New York City on 28 November.

    For the remainder of her naval career, Atlantis operated locally in the waters of the 3d Naval District, chiefly at New York City. Atlantis was decommissioned on 7 May 1919, and her name was struck from the Navy list on 7 July. She was sold to Shirley G. Ellis of Larchmont, N.Y., on 30 October 1919.

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