Name USS Rickwood Completed 1910 Commissioned 18 June 1917 Builder Matthews Boat Company | Namesake Previous name retained Acquired 9 June 1917 Length 22 m | |
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Fate Returned to owner 3 March 1919 | ||
USS Rickwood (SP-597) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919.
Rickwood was built as the private motorboat Ethel M. Ward by the Matthews Boat Company at Port Clinton, Ohio, in 1910. She later was renamed Rickwood.
On 9 June 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired Rickwood from her owner, A. H. Woodward of Woodward, Alabama, for use as a section patrol boat during World War I. She was commissioned as USS Rickwood (SP-597) on 18 June 1918 with Ensign George R. Bazzell in command.
Assigned to Naval Air Station Pensacola at Pensacola, Florida, Rickwood patrolled the Florida coast near Pensacola for the rest of World War I and into January 1919. She also recovered downed aircrews and aircraft and performed other local search and rescue work, provided ferry service between the naval air station and the city of Pensacola, and performed local towing work.
On 28 January 1919, Rickwood was reassigned from Naval Air Station Pensacola to Naval Station Pensacola.
Rickwood was returned to Woodward on 3 March 1919. After that, she had a long civilian career, remaining on mercantile registers until 1955.