USS Vencedor

USS Vencedor (SP-669) [3] was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918.

USS Vencedor (SP-669) in an icy port during World War I.
History
United States
Name	USS Vencedor
Namesake	Previous name retained
Builder	George Lawley & Son, Neponset, Massachusetts
Completed	1909
Acquired	19 June 1917
Commissioned	30 August 1917
Decommissioned	26 February 1919
Fate	Returned to owner 25[1] or 26[2] February 1919
Notes	Operated as private motorboat Tekla and Vencedor 1909-1917 and Vencedor from 1919
General characteristics
Type	Patrol vessel
Tonnage	90 gross register tons
Length	90 ft (27 m)
Beam	17 ft (5.2 m)
Draft	3 ft 11 in (1.19 m) mean
Speed	10.5 knots
Complement	15
Armament	1 × 6-pounder gun 1 × 1-pounder gun

Vencedor once again under private ownership on 13 July 1919, hauled out of the water at City Island in the Bronx, New York. Although decommissioned and returned to her owner in February 1919, she still bears her U.S. Navy "S.P. 669" section patrol marking on her bow.

Vencedor was built as the private motorboat Tekla by George Lawley & Son at Neponset, Massachusetts, in 1909. She later was renamed Vencedor.

On 19 June 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired Vencedor under a free lease from her owner, Herbert H. Luedinghaus, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, as USS Vencedor (SP-669) on 30 August 1917.

Assigned to the 3rd Naval District and operating from Section Base No. 6, Vencedor carried out harbor patrol duties into the summer of 1918. She then changed roles and began towing targets and operating as a dispatch boat for the rest of World War I.

Vencedor was decommissioned at City Island in the Bronx, New York, on 26 February 1919 and returned to Luedinghaus. Sources differ on the date of her return to Luedinghams, stating both 25[4] and 26[5] February 1919 as the date of her return; the 25 February 1919 return date calls into question the accuracy of the 26 February decommissioning date claimed for her, as decommissioning presumably would occur before or simultaneously with her return to her owner.