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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

USCGC AB-6
ex-USCGC Kangaroo



Call sign (1922):
George - Vice - Fox - Tare

ex-USS Kangaroo (SP 1284)

Kangaroo served both the U. S. Navy and Coast Guard.

Motorboat:

  • Built in 1917 as Herreshoff Hull No. 316 by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co, Bristol, RI
  • Named Kangaroo
  • Acquired by the Navy 18 September 1917
  • Commissioned Kangaroo (SP 1284), 10 December 1917
  • Decommissioned 20 May 1919
  • Transferred to the Coast Guard 22 November 1919 and commissioned USCGC Kangaroo
  • Renamed AB-6, 6 November 1923
  • Sold 1 October 1932 to John H. Curtis of Norfolk, VA
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 29 t.
    1922 - 12 t.
  • Length 62' 4"
  • Beam 10' 11"
  • Draft 3' 6"
    1922 - 2' 9"
  • Speed 21 kts.
    1922 - 13 kts.
  • Complement 11
    1922 - Five
  • Armament: One 1-pounder
  • Propulsion: Two 60hp 4-cylinder gasoline engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Kangaroo
    Kangaroo 111k
    Namesake:

    Kangaroo - A marsupial indigenous to Australia and New Guinea

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 9 July 2021
    Kangaroo 59k At anchor prior to her World War I Navy service
    U.S. Navy photo NH 94480    		 Naval Historical Center
    Kangaroo 121k Photographed when first completed in 1917.
    U.S. Navy photos NH 101885, NH 101886 and NH 101952
    Kangaroo 46k
    Kangaroo 82k
    USS Kangaroo (SP 1284)
    Kangaroo 102k Sailors exercising with rowing and sailing craft, 1918. The larger craft present are USS Content (SP-538), in the left center background; and Kangaroo, in the right
    center background
    Photographed by Alton H. Blackinton, Boston, Massachusetts
    U.S. Navy photo NH 41949    		 Naval Historical Center
    Kangaroo 93k Sailors exercising with small craft, 1918. The larger craft present are USS Orca (SP-726); in the center, USS Content (SP-538), in the left center background; and Kangaroo, astern of Orca
    Photographed by Alton H. Blackinton, Boston, Massachusetts
    U.S. Navy photo NH 41948
    Kangaroo 96k In port, possibly at Key West, Florida, circa 1918-1919. USS SC-297 and USS SC-290 are in the background
    U.S. Navy photo NH 100657
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships:

    Kangaroo

    Any of a family of herbiverous, leaping, marsupial mammals of Australia, New Guinea, and adjacent islands.

    Kangaroo, a motor boat, was built in 1917 by Herreshoff Mfg. Co., Bristol, R.I.; purchased 18 September at Boston from her owner, Henry A. Morse, of Marblehead, Mass.; and commissioned 10 December, Chief Quartermaster C. H. Waterman, USNRF, in command.

    Assigned to the 1st Naval District, Kangaroo served on section and inner harbor patrol in Penobscot Bay, Maine, until 14 October 1918, when she sailed for Key West, Fla. Arriving 12 January 1919, she performed patrol and dispatch duties along the Florida Keys and Atlantic coastal waters. She decommissioned 20 May and was taken over by the U.S. Coast Guard 22 November for customs and coastal surveillance patrols. Serving at Key West, Charleston, and Norfolk, she was renamed AB-6 on 6 November 1923. She was sold to John H. Curtis of Norfolk 1 October 1932.
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