USS Margaret (SP-527)
| 300px USS Margaret (SP-527) leaving Bermuda for the Azores in November 1917. | |
| Career (USA) |  100x35px |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Margaret |
| Namesake: | Name retained by the Navy. |
| Builder: | John Roach & Sons in Chester, Pennsylvania |
| Laid down: | date unknown |
| Christened: | as the yacht Eugenia, later as Marjorie and Margaret |
| Completed: | 1899 at Chester, Pennsylvania |
| Acquired: | by the Navy in August 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 16 October 1917 as USS Margaret (SP 527) |
| Decommissioned: | November 1918 |
| Struck: | not known |
| Fate: | sold 30 September 1921; fate unknown |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Yacht |
| Tonnage: | 245 gross tons |
| Length: | not known |
| Beam: | not known |
| Draft: | not known |
| Propulsion: | steam engine |
| Speed: | not known |
| Complement: | not known |
| Armament: | not known |
USS Margaret (SP-527) was a yacht acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War I. The yacht was outfitted as an armed patrol craft and was assigned to escort and patrol duty in the North Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, the vessel had numerous mechanical problems and her captain -- Lieutenant Commander Frank Jack Fletcher of World War II fame – and was not an effective fighting ship.
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A yacht built in Pennsylvania
USS Margaret, a 245 gross ton patrol vessel, was built at Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1899 by the firm of John Roach & Sons as a private steam yacht. Named Eugenia, Marjorie, and Margaret during the years prior to World War I, she was taken over by the Navy in August 1917 for overseas service in that conflict. Following conversion, the ship was placed in commission in mid-October 1917, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Frank Jack Fletcher, who would lead U.S. carrier task forces during critical phases of the next World War.
World War I service
Early in November Margaret began a voyage to the European war zone, towing a French submarine chaser and accompanied by several other converted yachts. This trip, accompanied by many troubles, ended in the Azores early in December. Margaret's mechanical difficulties were apparently so serious that she remained in the Azores for several months, and perhaps for the rest of the war. A humorous account of the misadventures of the ship and its crew, "Maggie of the Suicide Fleet" by Prosper Buranelli, was published by Doubleday, Doran & Co. in 1930.
Post-war dispositioning
She returned to the United States following the November 1918 Armistice and, some two years after being decommissioned, was sold at the end of September 1921.
