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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Killarney (SP 219)

Motor Yacht:

  • Built in 1910 as Dora by the Defoe Boat and Motor Works, West Bay City, MI
  • Renamed Killarney in 1911
  • Acquired by the Navy 30 April 1917
  • Commissioned USS Killarney (SP 219), 12 June 1917
  • Delivered to the Navy 2 July 1917
  • Transferred 3 March 1919 to the Naval Training Camp Detroit, MI
  • Declared inactive 12 August 1919
  • Struck from the Navy list 3 November 1919
  • Sold 18 December 1919 to John J. Kiley of Detroit, MI
  • Abandoned in 1926.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 32 t.
  • Length 64' 10"
  • Beam 13'
  • Draft 3' 4"
  • Speed 10 kts.
  • Propulsion: One 40hp 4-cylinder Doman gasoline engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Motor Yacht Dora
    Killarney 103k . Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Motor Yacht Killarney
    Killarney 89k Photograph alongside a Great Lakes dock, prior to World War I.
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 99503    		 Robert Hurst
    Killarney 74k Photograph dated 16 April 1917, possibly taken during a preliminary Navy inspection prior to her being taken over for World War I service.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 101962    		 Naval Historical Center
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships History: Killarney (SP-219), a motor yacht, was built by Defoe Boat Works, Bay City, Mich., in 1910; purchased 30 April 1917 from her owner, James H. McGillan, of Green Bay, Wis., and commissioned 12 June, Ens. James H. McGillan, USNRF, in command.

    Assigned to the Naval District at Great Lakes, Ill., Killarney served as a section patrol ship on the St. Mary's River in the Straits of Mackinac during the summer and fall of 1917. She wintered in Detroit and continued her duties on Lake St. Clair and the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers, where she patrolled channels and regulated traffic, Killarney was transferred 3 March 1919 to the Naval Training Camp at Detroit and declared inactive 12 August. Struck from the Navy List 3 November, Killarney was sold 18 December to John J. Kiley of Detroit.

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