USS Privateer (SP-179), later YP-179, was an armed motorboat that served in the United States Navy as a patrol vessel from 1917 to 1930. Privateer was built for R. A. C. Smith as a civilian motorboat of the same name in 1917 by the Gas Engine and Power Company and Charles L. Seabury and Company at Morris Heights in the Bronx, New York. The U.S. Navy acquired her under charter from Smith for World War I service as a patrol vessel, and accordingly she was delivered to the Navy on 25 May 1917. She was commissioned as USS Privateer (SP-179) on 15 August 1917 with Ensign H. P. Wills, USNRF, in command.