USS Albatross (1882) - World War I

World War I

Insufficient funds to operate the vessel, however, dictated that she be laid up, and she remained inactive from October 1916 to April 1917. The American entry into World War I at the end of that period resulted in the ship being transferred to the Navy for war service on 2 May 1917, within a month of the United States' declaration of war against the Central Powers.

Taken over by the Commandant of the 12th Naval District on 19 November 1917, Albatross was placed under the command of Lt. Comdr. John J. Hannigan. Following repairs and alterations at Mare Island, Albatross — her armament consisting of four 6-pounders and a Colt automatic gun — departed San Francisco on 14 January 1918 and reached Key West, Florida, on 14 February. Assigned to the American Patrol Detachment, the gunboat protected tankers transporting important oil and petroleum cargo in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean. While working with the American Patrol Department, she took part in the search for the Navy collier Cyclops which, after departing Barbados on 4 March 1918, had disappeared without trace in the spring of 1918.

On 21 November 1918, 10 days after the armistice stilled the guns of World War I, the Chief of Naval Operations directed that Albatross, upon the completion of repairs at New Orleans, be released from duty with the American Patrol Detachment. Reaching Norfolk on 30 May 1919, the ship was turned over to the Bureau of Fisheries on 23 June 1919.