USS Owera (SP-167)

USS Owera in a United States East Coast port ca. 1918. Destroyer tender USS Prairie is across the pier.
Career (United States)
Name:	USS Owera
Namesake:	Previous name retained
Builder:	Ramage and Ferguson, Leith, Scotland
Completed:	1907
Acquired:	Formally leased 18 June 1917
Commissioned:	15 June 1917
Decommissioned:	6 January 1919
Fate:	Returned to owner 8 January 1919
Notes:	Built as civilian yacht Owera
General characteristics
Type:	Patrol vessel
Tonnage:	426 gross tons
Length:	195 ft (59 m)
Beam:	26 ft (7.9 m)
Draft:	12 ft (3.7 m)
Speed:	12 knots
Armament:	2 x 6-pounder guns 2 x machine guns

USS Owera (SP-167), was an armed yacht that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1919.

Owera as a civilian yacht sometime between 1907 and 1917.

Owera was built in 1907 by Ramage and Ferguson at Leith, Scotland, as a civilian yacht of the same name. The U.S. Navy acquired her from her owner, United States Senator Peter G. Gerry of Rhode Island, for World War I service as a patrol vessel and commissioned her on 15 June 1917 as USS Owera (SP-167). The Navy formally leased her from Senator Gerry on 18 June 1917.

Operating in the 2nd Naval District out of Newport, Rhode Island, during World War I, Owera patrolled in the experimental submarine zone in Long Island Sound off New London, Connecticut, through most of her U.S. Navy career. Her duties included towing torpedo targets for submarine target practice.

In October 1918 Owera steamed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, thence, after a run to Boston, Massachusetts, operated in the Delaware Bay area in the 4th Naval District.

Proceeding to the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, in November 1918, Owera was decommissioned on 6 January 1919 and was returned to Senator Gerry at New York City on 8 January 1919.

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center: Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Owera (SP-167), 1917-1919. Originally the steam yacht Owera
• NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive Owera (SP 167)