USS Sapphire (SP-710)

	Sapphire (left), astern of the yacht Oneida (right)
History
United States
Name	USS Sapphire
Namesake	Previous name retained
Builder	Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Bristol, Rhode Island
Completed	1900
Acquired	8 June 1917
Commissioned	14 September 1917
Decommissioned	16 December 1918
Fate	Returned to owner 16 December 1918
Notes	Operated as private yacht Sapphire 1900–17 and from 1918
General characteristics
Type	Patrol vessel
Tonnage	53 gross tons
Length	98 ft (30 m)
Beam	14 ft (4.3 m)
Draft	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Propulsion	steam engine, single screw
Sail plan	two masts, gaff rig
Speed	10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement	19
Armament	1 × 6-pounder gun; 1 × .30-caliber (7.62-mm) machine gun;

USS Sapphire (SP-710) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918.

Sapphire was built as a small, private, wooden-hulled steam yacht of the same name in 1900 by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company at Bristol, Rhode Island. On 8 June 1917, her owner, Jeremiah Milbank of New York City, enrolled her in the Naval Coast Defense Reserve and the US Navy ordered her into service for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned as USS Sapphire (SP-710) on 14 September 1917 at Brooklyn, New York, with Ensign John S.(Seymour) Montgomery, USNRF, in command.

After fitting out for naval service at Tebo's Yacht Basin, Sapphire joined the section patrol in the 3rd Naval District on 14 July 1918. For the rest of World War I, she patrolled the waters off Execution Light, alternating with or joining the patrol vessels USS Sturdy, USS Jimetta, and USS Josephine. She ceased active service on 20 November 1918, and was transferred from Section Base No. 7 to New York Harbor on 10 December 1918.

The patrol vessel USS Minerva towed Sapphire to Robert Jacob's shipyard at City Island in the Bronx, New York, on 16 December 1918. She was decommissioned there and returned to Milbank that day.

References