High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Sentinel (SP-180) was the first United States Navy vessel to bear the name. It was a motorboat built in 1917 by Pacific Shipyards and Ways Co., Alameda, California and was purchased by the United States Navy from W. G. Tibbetts on 9 August 1917 and commissioned the same day, Ensign C. A. Lundquist, USNRF, in command.