Coco was built in 1917 by the
Albany Boat Corporation at
Watervliet, New York for
William John Matheson of New York and
Coconut Grove, Florida. The U.S. Navy purchased Coco from her owner for $5,500 on 23 June 1917 for use as a section patrol boat during
World War I.[1][2] She was
commissioned on 23 July 1917 as USS Coco (SP-110) armed with one machine gun. The motorboat's dimensions were 36 ft (11 m) length, 9 ft (2.7 m) beam with a draft of 2.5 ft (0.76 m) and 6
GRT with a maximum speed of 26 knots (30 mph; 48 km/h) and cruising speed of 20 knots (23 mph; 37 km/h) with one Sterling eight cylinder engine of 200 indicated horsepower.[2][note 1]
Assigned to the
Section patrol in the
7th Naval District, Coco served in Florida waters for the rest of the war and for some months after the fighting ended. Coco was one three of Matheson's yachts in government service, the others being
Marpessa and
Calabash.[3]Coco was stricken from the
Naval Vessel Register on 23 June 1919.[4]
The motorboat was sold on 5 August. Before she could be delivered to her new owner, M. C. Carmichael, she was among several patrol boats wrecked in the
1919 Florida Keys hurricane on 9–10 September while anchored in
North Beach Basin at
Key West, Florida.[4][5][6]
Footnotes
^The boat's Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships entry states that Coco served in a non-commissioned status, but the contemporary Ships' Data U.S. Naval Vessels states that she was commissioned with date.
References
^
abNaval History And Heritage Command.
"Coco". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
^
abConstruction & Repair Bureau (Navy) (1 November 1918).
Ships' Data U.S. Naval Vessels. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 338–342. Retrieved 9 September 2018.