USS Zipalong (SP-3) was an armed motorboat that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel during 1917.

USS Zipalong (SP-3)
History
United States
NameZipalong
NamesakePrevious name retained
BuilderGeorge Lawley & Son, Boston, Massachusetts
Completed1907
AcquiredSpring 1917
Commissioned13 June 1917
Decommissioned27 November 1917
FateReturned to owners early 1918
NotesOperated as private motorboat Gansetta and Zipalong 1907-1917 and Zipalong from early 1918
General characteristics
TypePatrol vessel
Displacement30 long tons (30.5 t)
Length78 ft 0 in (23.77 m)
Beam11 ft 2 in (3.40 m)
Draft4 ft 0 in (1.22 m) mean
Installed power125 hp (93 kW) gasoline engine
Propulsion1 × Propeller
Speed15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement8
Armament1 × machine gun

Zipalong was a wooden-hulled motorboat built in 1907 at Boston, Massachusetts, by George Lawley & Son with the name Gansetta, which was subsequently renamed Zipalong.

The U.S. Navy acquired Zipalong in the spring of 1917 from Albert and Leonard Schwarz and W. W. Miller for service in World War I. Assigned the classification SP-3, she was commissioned on 13 June 1917 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as USS Zipalong.

With her section base at Cape May, New Jersey, Zipalong conducted local section patrols within the 4th Naval District into the autumn of 1917.

Decommissioned on 27 November 1917 at Philadelphia, Zipalong was returned to her owners in early 1918 and resumed her civilian pursuits.

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