Here we see the 96-foot long section patrol craft USS Vester (SP-686), photographed circa 1917-1919 during The Great War, probably in a Delaware Bay-area port.
![](http://laststandonzombieisland.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/uss-vester-nh-42437-menhaden-boat-converted-to-patrol-boat-great-war.jpg?w=519&h=392)
According to DANFS, “the ship appears to have spent most of her active duty alongside a pier with her engines out of commission.” U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph NH 42437
Note the two 1-pounder 37mm guns mounted amidships and the sign on the building in the left background, advertising “The Best $3.30 Shoe.”
Built in 1876 as a wooden-hulled menhaden fishing boat, Vester was taken over by the Navy on 24 May 1917 from her owners (the Delaware Fish Oil Co.) and placed in commission on 2 June. She was decommissioned on 15 May 1919 after almost two years in the Navy and sold on 15 January 1920– 99 years ago today.
The company she was sold to, Hayes & Anderson of NYC, a fishing operation, was subsequently fined for using unlicensed boats to harvest menhaden. Vester‘s trail goes cold shortly after.