| 1917: | |
| June | 3244.4 miles |
| July | 3358.7 |
| August | 3441.5 |
| September | 3343.7 |
| October | 2994.4 |
| November | 3045.6 |
| December | 557.1 (Engine counter disabled in hurricane) |
| 1918: | |
| January | 880.9 miles (at Lisbon) |
| February | 2635.8 |
| March | 2519 |
| April | 1279.3 |
| May | 3554.5 |
| June | 3823.8[7] |
| July | 3609.8[7] |
| August | 4300[7] |
| September | 4027[7] |
| October | 1155.7 (Repairs) |
| November | 1030.4 |
| December | 1182 |
On July 31st, less than two months after being placed out of commission as a naval vessel, the Corsair hoisted the Commodore’s flag of the New York Yacht Club. Trim and immaculate, she proceeded to her anchorage at Glen Cove, to await cruising orders. There were differences, however, and the Corsair was not the same as of old. Freshly painted, the hue of her funnel and hull was the gray of the Navy. For a season, at least, the glistening black of her hull was not to be restored. It seemed more fitting, somehow, that in this way she should recall her long service in helping guard the road to France.
Upon her funnel were two service chevrons. The regulations awarded a stripe for the first three months overseas and another for a full year thereafter, until the date of the armistice. The decks were scraped and holystoned and spotless, but where the guns had been there were wooden plugs to mark the half-circles of the mounts, and the pine planking was scarred where cases of shells had been dragged to be ready for the swift team-work of the agile gun crews. These, too, were marks of honor which it seemed a pity to obliterate. They signified that the Corsair was something more than a yacht.
Another memento and reminder, to be highly regarded by the ship’s company of those stirring days, is a letter from the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Naval Forces in European Waters, who desired that his “well done” should be included in this record. It is placed here by way of “good-bye and fare-ye-well,” as the old chantey sang it. Admiral Sims writes as follows:
Naval War College
Newport, Rhode Island
1 December, 1919
My dear Mr. Paine:
To undertake to write the complete story of any one ship of the American Navy and its experiences in the war zone seems to me a task very well worth while. Needless to say, the work of the yachts and their personnel on the coast of France was splendid, and I am only too glad to have an opportunity to express my appreciation of them.
Because of the shortage of vessels suitable for convoy and escort duty, and the gravely urgent circumstances, the yachts were sent across with little time for preparation or training and with few officers and men of the Regular Navy in their complements. They were an emergency flotilla, but I felt confident that they would quickly adapt themselves to the arduous conditions of their service in European waters.
What did surprise me was that they were able to weather a winter in the Bay of Biscay and to stay at sea with the convoys when yachts were presumed to be tucked in harbor. This was greatly to the credit of the courage, seamanship, and hardihood of the men who served in them. It was conspicuously true of the Corsair’s encounter with the December hurricane in which she almost foundered, but succeeded in making port at Lisbon. A similar spirit was shown when this vessel stood by the disabled steamer Dagfin and towed her three hundred miles through an area in which enemy submarines were operating.
With a steaming record of 50,000 miles on foreign service, with the unusual number of fourteen enlisted men appointed as commissioned officers, and with repeated commendations from the Force Commander in France, such a yacht served with honor to the flag and the Navy and deserves the verdict of “Well Done, Corsair.”