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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

McKeever Bros. (SP 683)

Menhaden Trawler/Minesweeper/Patrol:

  • Built in 1911 by Robert Palmer and Sons, Noank, CT
  • Commissioned USS McKeever Bros. (SP 683), 5 May 1917 but not acquired by the Navy until 18 May 1917
  • Struck from the Navy list 22 March 1918
  • Sold 1 July 1919
  • Registered in 1927 to the Seaboard Oil and Guano Co. of Reedville, VA as the fishing vessel McKeever Bros.
  • Acquired by Otis Smith of Lewes, DE
  • Acquired in 1969 by a corporation of five men, headed by George Spana, converted into a floating restaurant in Seaford, DE and renamed Flagship
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:: Displacement 223 t. (1927)

  • Length 136'
    1927 - 128'
  • Beam 24'
    1927 - 22.2'
  • Draft 12'
    1927 - 10'
  • Speed 10 kts.
  • Complement 22
    1927 - 25
  • Armament: Two 3-pounders
  • Propulsion: One Marine leg boiler, one 400hp verticle compound steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS McKeever Bros. (SP 683)
    McKeever Brothers 103k Off Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during World War I. In the extreme left background is USS Emerald (SP-177)
    U.S. Navy photo NH 55839    		 Naval History and Heritage Command
    McKeever Brothers 83k In the Delaware River during World War I
    National Archives photo 19-N-6051
    Flagship
    McKeever Brothers 78k Post card caption:

    The Flagship Nanticoke Queen

    "The McKeever Bros." built at Noank, Conn., in 1911, of the finest northern pine and oak, saw service as a trawler most of her life and served her country during World War II on submarine patrol. Now this sturdy old ship, renamed the "Flagship", after extensive remodeling into a restaurant serves fine steaks, seafood and cocktails in a setting enhanced by mellowed old wooden beams and planking, brass fittings and soft music, Truly a "Red Carpet" setting!

    		 Tommy Trampp
    McKeever Brothers 389k 15 August 2018
    Seaford, DE    		 Mark Blair
    Commanding Officers
    01LTJG Harvey Gideon Cramer, USNRF1918 - 1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the McKeever Bros. (SP 683)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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