Geographical mile longitude at the equator is thus exactly 60 geographical miles. It was closely related to the nautical mile, which was originally determined as 1 minute of arc along a great circle of the Earth, but is nowadays defined as exactly 1852 metres. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) notes that: "The international nautical mile of 1 852 meters (6 076.115 49...feet) was adopted effective July 1, 1954, for use in the United States. The value formerly used in the United States was 6 080.20 feet = 1 nautical (geographical or sea) mile." (6080.2 feet is 1853.24496 meters.)
USS Wissahickon (SP-852) was under the command of Lieutenant, junior grade, E. W. Haskell, USNRF on that date - but one secondary source states that she was not commissioned until 3 October 1917. At any rate, "Wissahickon" was commissioned sometime between April and early October 1917. Sources differ as to whether she was commissioned without her name as USS "SP-852" or as USS "Wissahickon" (SP-852), with her name being changed in 1918 to USS "SP-852". The Navy considered "Wissahickon"/"SP-852" too light for "distant service" in European waters, so she was placed in the Naval Coast Defense Reserve and assigned to the 1st Naval