USS Elfin (SP-965)

	USS Elfin (SP-965) operating ca. 1918.
History
United States
Name	USS Elfin
Namesake	Previous name retained
Builder	Britt Brothers, Lynn, Massachusetts
Completed	1911
Acquired	July 1917
Commissioned	26 July 1917
Fate	Returned to owner 22 November 1918
Notes	Operated as private motorboat Elfin 1911-1917 and from 1918
General characteristics
Type	Patrol vessel
Length	50 ft 8 in (15.44 m)

The second USS Elfin (SP-965) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918.

Background

Elfin was built in 1911 as a private motorboat of the same name by Britt Brothers [Wikidata] at Lynn, Massachusetts. In July 1917, the U.S. Navy leased her from her owner, Alfred W. Gibbs of Wayne, Pennsylvania, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned^[1] as USS Elfin (SP-965) on 26 July 1917.

Assigned to the 4th Naval District, Elfin served on patrol duties through the end of World War I.

Elfin was returned to Gibbs on 22 November 1918.

^ The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships' assertion that Elfin served in a non-commissioned status – repeated at NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Elfin (SP 965) – appears to have been in error, and Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Elfin (SP-965), 1917-1918 corrects the record with a specific commissioning date.