January 6, 1919
A little less than two months after the armistice ending World War I had gone into effect, USS Kestrel II (SP-529) – which served as a patrol vessel for the U.S. Navy during that military conflict – was decommissioned.
Kestrel II was originally a private motor yacht that had been built in 1912 by Percy Tuttle, a resident of the Long Island village of Greenport. This yacht’s owner, D. Herbert Hostetter, turned the vessel over to the U.S. Navy about three months after the United States’ entry in World War I on the side of the Allied Powers. At the time, the Navy was in urgent need of more vessels to carry out various duties both abroad and at home during the war.
Kestrel II was commissioned on June 4, 1917, under the command of Chief Boatswain’s Mate C.E. Black, U.S. Naval Reserve Force. The next day’s edition of the Pittsburgh Post reported, “The Kestrel . . . was considered by the naval inspectors one of the finest and best equipped ships offered by private owners, and was promptly sent to a navy yard to be armed.”
Throughout the remainder of World War I, Kestrel II was assigned to carry out coastal patrols in Long Island Sound. On the same day that she was decommissioned, this yacht was returned to Hostetter. (The accompanying photo of Kestrel II was taken during her pre-war years.)
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on USS Kestrel II (SP-529), please check out https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/k/kestrel-ii-sp-529.html
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