Name USS Liberty III Completed 1896 | Namesake Previous name retained Acquired 10 September 1917 | |
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Builder John Bishop, Gloucester, Massachusetts Commissioned 20 or 21 September 1917 | ||
USS Liberty III (SP-1229), sometimes written Liberty # 3 and also referred to during her naval career as Liberty and as #3 Pilot Boat, was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919.
Liberty III was built as a civilian schooner-rigged pilot boat of the same name in 1896 by John Bishop at Gloucester, Massachusetts. On 10 September 1917 the U.S. Navy acquired her under a free lease from her owner, the Boston Pilots Relief Society, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was enrolled in the Naval Coast Defense Reserve on 15 September 1917 and commissioned on 20 or 21 September 1917 as USS Liberty III (SP-1229) with Ensign Murdoch McLean, USNRF, in command.
Assigned to the 1st Naval District in northern New England and based at Boston, Massachusetts, Liberty III served for the rest of World War I as a harbor entrance patrol boat, guiding the movements of ships that navigated the defensive sea area of the port of Boston.
The Navy decommissioned Liberty III on 8 January 1919 and returned her to the Boston Pilots Relief Society the same day.