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Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive

Orca (SP 726)



Call sign:
Nan - Unit - Boy - Sail
Yacht:

  • The first Orca was built in 1901 as Monaloa by George Lawley and Sons Corp., Neponset, MA
  • Renamed Orca
  • Commissioned USS Orca SP 726), 8 May 1917
  • Delivered to the Navy 17 May 1917
  • Decommissioned 30 December 1918
  • Struck from the Navy Register 18 August 1919
  • Sold 2 February 1920 to Frazer Brace and Co. of New York, NY
  • Registered in 1926 to the New York Harbor Dry Dock Corp. of New York, NY as a miscellaneous vessel
  • Registered in 1927 to Anderson and Wheeler of West New Brighton, NY
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 37 t.
  • Length 85'
    1926 - 71.7'
  • Beam 11' 8"
  • Draft 4' 3"
    1926 - 6.6'
  • Speed 12.5 kts.
  • Complement 15
    1926 - Five
    1927 - One
  • Armament: One 1-pounder and one machine gun
  • Propulsion: One Roberts boiler, one 130hp verticle triple expansion steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Yacht Monaloa
    Orca 123k Underway during the early 1900s, flying the U.S. Yachting Ensign
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 101357    		 Robert Hurst
    Yacht Orca
    Orca 116k Photographed prior to World War I
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 102080    		 Robert Hurst
    USS Orca (SP 726)
    Kangaroo 93k Sailors exercising with small craft, 1918. The larger craft present are Orca; in the center, Content (SP 538), in the left center background; and Kangaroo (SP 1284), astern of Orca.
    Photographed by Alton H. Blackinton, Boston, Massachusetts.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 41948    		 Naval Historical Center
    Commanding Officers
    01Chief Boatswain Frank D. Grassie, USNRF8 May 1917 - 1918
    02ENS Charles L. Weaver, USNRF1918 - 1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships:

    Orca

    A Bay near Cordova, Alaska, Latin form of orc—the grampus or killer whale.

    Orca, a steam yacht built by George Lawley & Sons Corp., Neponset, Mass., commissioned in the Navy 8 May 1917, Boatswain F. D. Grassie in command, and was formally purchased by the government from S. W. Colten, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 17 May 1917.

    Operating in the 1st Naval District, headquarters at Boston during World War I, Orca patrolled in and around Boston throughout her Naval career, moored to Fishe Wharf, Boston from October to December 1918. In December, she steamed to Quincy, scheduled for decommissioning the 30th.

    After decommissioning, Orca was struck from the Navy Register and ordered sold 18 August 1919. She was sold to Frazer Brace & Co., New York City 2 February 1920.

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