USS Advance (1917)

USS "Advance" (1917) was an Advance-class patrol boat acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of patrolling American coastal waters during the First World War.

The third vessel to be named "Advance" by the Navy -- a motorboat constructed for the U.S. Coast Guard in 1917 at North Tonawanda, New York, by the Richardson Boat Co. -- was taken over by the Navy and commissioned on 6 June 1917.

World War I service

"Advance" was assigned to the 9th Naval District section patrol; and, although few documents recording her service have survived, she probably spent the entire period of America's involvement in World War I cruising the Great Lakes. The Coast Guard assumed custody of Advance on 28 August 1919; and, presumably, she continued duty on the Great Lakes.

Damaged by gasoline explosion

Coast Guard records reveal that, by 1 January 1923, her permanent duty station and base of operations was Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. On 6 November of that year, "Advance" was renamed "AB-1". On 27 May 1924, the motorboat suffered a gasoline explosion, burned, and sank at Sault Ste. Marie. Raised and repaired, she returned to active service by 20 August 1924. Four days later, she departed Sault Ste. Marie and proceeded to Chicago, Illinois. "AB-1" spent the next 38 months based at Chicago and finally headed back to Sault Ste. Marie on 15 October 1927. She apparently passed the remainder of her Coast Guard career there.

Deactivation

Her name disappeared from the Coast Guard register in 1940

References

See also

* List of United States Navy ships
* Patrol boat

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a3/advance-iii.htm USS Advance]