USS Teaser

USS Teaser has been the name of more than one United States Navy ship, and refer to:

USS Teaser (SP-933)

The second USS Teaser (SP-933) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1918.

Teaser was built as a civilian wooden-hulled cabin launch of the same name in 1916 by W. F. Dunn at Norfolk, Virginia. In November 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired her from her owner, George Roper & Brother, for use as a section patrol vessel during World War I. She was commissioned as USS Teaser (SP-933) on 29 November 1917.

Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Teaser served on patrol duties in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, area for the rest of World War I and into December 1918. On 27 December 1918, an engine backfire started a fire aboard Teaser, and she burned and sank in Hampton Roads.

Teaser was stricken from the Navy List on 15 February 1919.

References

CSS Teaser

CSS Teaser had been the aging Georgetown, D.C. tugboat York River until the beginning of the American Civil War, when she was taken into the Confederate States Navy and took part in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads. Later, she was captured by the United States Navy and became the first USS Teaser.

CSS Teaser

Teaser was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Purchased at Richmond, Virginia by the State of Virginia in 1861, she was assigned to the naval forces in the James River with Lieutenant James Henry Rochelle, Virginia State Navy, in command. Upon the secession of Virginia, Teaser became a part of the Confederate States Navy and continued to operate in Virginia waters. With Lieutenant William A. Webb, CSN, in command, she took an active part in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8–March 9, 1862, acting as tender to CSS Virginia. She received the thanks of the Congress of the Confederate States for this action.

Teaser was a pioneer "aircraft carrier", serving as a base for an observation hot air balloon; she also became a pioneer minelayer when ordered on June 17, 1862, to assist General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Under Lieutenant Hunter Davidson, CSN, she was used by the Confederate Naval Submarine Battery Service to plant and service "torpedoes" (mines) in the James River. While engaging USS Maratanza at Haxall's on the James on July 4, 1862, a Union shell blew up Teaser's boiler and forced her crew to abandon ship. When seized by Maratanza, Teaser was carrying on board a balloon for aerial reconnaissance of Union positions at City Point and Harrison's Landing.