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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Whistler (SP 784)


Motor Boat: Built in 1917 by J. E. Graves, Marblehead, MA; Acquired by the Navy, 17 May 1917; Commissioned, 31 July 1917; Decommissioned and struck from the Navy list, 19 May 1919; Sold, 20 June 1919. Fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 20 t.; Length 50'; Beam 11' 6"; Draft 3'; Speed 25 kts.; Complement 7; Armament one 1-pounder and one Colt machine gun.
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Whistler 83k Passing a Nebraska class battleship, probably at about the time she was taken over by the Navy. c. 1917.
USN Photo NH 89753
Naval Historical Center
Whistler 95k Probably photographed at the time she was taken over by the Navy. She already has a gun mounting installed just forward of her cockpit. Note small motor boat Argus in the foreground. c. 1917.
USN Photo NH 102372
Naval Historical Center
Alacrity 83k Lockwood's Basin, Boston, Massachusetts. View of the basin looking down the pier, taken by Alton M. Blackinton, Boston, circa 1918, showing USS Moosehead (ID 2047) in the center and section patrol boats. USS Alacrity (SP-206) is at the far left. The patrol boats in the left center foreground are (from left to right): USS Kiowa (SP-711); USS Skink (SP-605); unidentified; USS Whistler (SP-785); and USS Lynx II (SP-730).
USN Photograph NH 42147
Naval Historical Center
Whistler 85k In Lockwood's Basin, Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1918, with USS Moosehead (ID 2047) on the left and four patrol boats at right. The latter are (from outboard): USS Kiowa (SP-711), USS Skink (SP-605), USS Whistler (SP-784) and USS Lynx II (SP-730).
Photographed by Alton M. Blackinton, Boston.
US Navy Photo NH 45268
Naval Historical Center

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Whistler (SP-784), a wooden-hulled motorboat constructed at Marblehead, Mass., by J. E. Graves, and completed in 1917, was acquired by the Navy from Lawrence F. Percival, of Boston, on 17 May 1917, and commissioned at Boston on 31 July 1917. Attached to the Boston section of the 1st Naval District, Whistler operated from the Commonwealth Pier, the district headquarters, on harbor entrance patrols. On occasion, in line with her employment, she carried dispatches to other vessels and craft of the entrance patrol. One break in her routine came in the spring of 1918, when she stood by as 0-5 (Submarine No. 66) conducted sea and submergence trials in Hingham Bay on 30 May 1918. Subsequently decommissioned and struck from the Navy list on 19 May 1919, Whistler was sold to J. E. Doherty, of Boston, on 20 June 1919.

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