- References
{{other ships|USS Bluebird}}{{no footnotes|date=June 2017}}{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2012}}{{Infobox ship image| Ship image=Motorboat Blue Bird.jpg | Ship caption=Blue Bird as a private motorboat sometime between 1911 and 1917.
}}{{Infobox ship career | Hide header= | Ship country=United States | 1917}} | Ship name=USS Blue Bird | Ship namesake=Previous name retained | Ship owner= | Ship operator= | Ship registry= | Ship route= | Ship ordered= | Ship awarded= | Ship builder=Matthews Boat Company, Port Clinton, Ohio | Ship original cost= | Ship yard number= | Ship way number= | Ship laid down= | Ship launched= | Ship sponsor= | Ship christened= | Ship completed=1911 | Ship acquired=25 June 1917 | Ship commissioned=17 December 1917 | Ship recommissioned= | Ship decommissioned= | Ship maiden voyage= | Ship in service= | Ship out of service= | Ship renamed= | Ship reclassified= | Ship refit= | Ship struck= | Ship reinstated= | Ship homeport= | Ship identification= | Ship motto= | Ship nickname= | Ship honours= | Ship honors= | Ship captured= | Ship fate=Returned to owner 7 February 1919 | Ship status= | Ship notes=Operated as private motorboat Houqua, possibly Parthenia, and Blue Bird 1911-1917 and as Blue Bird 1919-1950 | Ship badge=
}}{{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header= | Header caption= | Ship class= | Ship type=Patrol vessel | Ship tonnage=36 gross register tons | Ship displacement= | Ship tons burthen= | 72|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} | 12|ft|0|in|m|abbr=on}} | Ship height= | Ship draught= | 3|ft|4.5|in|m|abbr=on}} mean | Ship depth= | Ship hold depth= | Ship decks= | Ship deck clearance= | Ship ramps= | Ship ice class= | Ship power= | Ship propulsion=Internal combustion engine, two shafts | Ship sail plan= | Ship speed=12.0 knots | Ship range= | Ship endurance= | Ship test depth= | Ship boats= | Ship capacity= | Ship troops= | Ship complement=11 | Ship crew= | Ship time to activate= | Ship sensors= | Ship EW= | Ship armament=*1 × 1-pounder gun- 1 × .30-caliber (7.62-mm) machine gun
| Ship armour= | Ship armor= | Ship aircraft= | Ship aircraft facilities= | Ship notes=
}} | USS Blue Bird (SP-465) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919. Blue Bird was built as the private motorboat Houqua in 1911 by the Matthews Boat Company at Port Clinton, Ohio, for A. A. Augustus of Lakewood, Ohio. She may have been renamed Parthenia later, and eventually was renamed Blue Bird. On 25 June 1917, the U.S. Navy acquired Blue Bird under a free lease from her owner - by then E. Palmer Gavit of Albany, New York - for use as a section patrol vessel during World War I. She was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard at Brooklyn, New York, as USS Blue Bird (SP-465) on 17 December 1917 with Chief Boatswain’s Mate William R. Wardlaw, USNRF, in command. Assigned to the 3rd Naval District, Blue Bird operated in the New York City area for the remainder of World War I. She provided transportation for official passengers from place to place in the naval district, served as a boarding boat when later attached to the naval district{{'}}s communication office, and operated in such areas as lower Gravesend Bay on patrol duty, tallying the names and numbers of vessels in those waters. She underwent upkeep and repairs in the Marine Basin at Ulmer Park, Brooklyn, from time to time. Blue Bird apparently was decommissioned early in 1919 and was returned to her owner on 7 February 1919. She thereafter remained in civilian use until about 1950. References- {{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/b7/blue-bird-i.htm}}
- Department of the Navy Naval History and Heritage Command Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: Blue Bird (American Motor Boat, 1911). Previously named Houqua and (perhaps) Parthenia. Served as USS Blue Bird (SP-465) in 1917-1919
- NavSource Online: Section Patrol Craft Photo Archive: Blue Bird (SP 465)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Bird (SP-465)}} 4 : Patrol vessels of the United States Navy|World War I patrol vessels of the United States|Ships built in Ohio|1911 ships |