Talk:USS Wasp (1893)

Confusion between two yachts COLUMBIA 1894 and COLUMBIA 1899

There has been confusion between the two yachts. The fist of 1894 was built by Cramp Shipbuilding and later commissioned—while the second was being built at Crescent Shipyard (later Bethlehem Steel Company)—as USS Wasp. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships gives an 1898 build date and an 11 April 1898 commissioning date (there would have been no "yacht" in between!) when contemporary accounts clearly show the second yacht, the one modeled after Pathfinder and clearly in the Crescent yard was actively being built in 1899. To complicate matters further, the article here uses the commissioning date to distinguish the vessel while the data shows construction starting five years earlier. The second yacht from Crescent became HMCS Stadacona in World War I and eventually U.S. Army FS-539 as well as having some colorful yachting days in between. Palmeira (talk) 23:55, 20 March 2015 (UTC)