Editing SS Eastland (section)

===Second life as USS ''Wilmette''===
[[File:The USS Wilmette.jpg|thumb|USS ''Wilmette'', c. 1918]]
After ''Eastland'' was raised on 14 August 1915, she was sold to the Illinois [[United States Navy Reserve|Naval Reserve]] and recommissioned as USS ''Wilmette'', stationed at the [[Naval Station Great Lakes]]. She was converted to a gunboat, renamed ''Wilmette'' on 20 February 1918, and commissioned on 20 September 1918 under captain William B. Wells.<ref name="DANFS" /> Commissioned late in World War I, ''Wilmette'' did not experience combat. It trained sailors and experienced normal upkeep and repairs until placed [[reserve fleet|in ordinary]] at Chicago on 9 July 1919, retaining a 10-man caretaker crew aboard. On 29 June 1920, the gunboat was returned to full commission.<ref name="DANFS">{{Cite web |title=Wilmette |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/w/wilmette.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807111213/https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/w/wilmette.html |archive-date=7 August 2020 |access-date=26 April 2009 |website=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships |publisher=United States Navy}}</ref>

On 7 June 1921, ''Wilmette'' was tasked with sinking [[SM UC-97|''UC-97'']], a German U-boat surrendered to the United States after World War I.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The UC-97 |url=http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/uc97.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810224346/http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/uc97.htm |archive-date=10 August 2007 |access-date=26 April 2009 |publisher=Eastland Disaster Historical Society}}</ref> The guns of ''Wilmette'' were manned by [[gunner's mate]] J. O. Sabin, who had fired the first American cannon of World War I, and gunner's mate A. F. Anderson, the man who fired the first American [[torpedo]] of the war.<ref name="ship">{{Cite web |title=USS Wilmette |url=http://www.eastlandmemorial.org/wilmette.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090119131704/http://www.eastlandmemorial.org/wilmette.shtml |archive-date=19 January 2009 |access-date=26 April 2009 |publisher=Eastland Memorial Society}}</ref>

For the remainder of her 25-year career, the gunboat served as a training ship for naval reservists of the 9th, 10th and 11th Naval Districts. It made voyages along the shores of the Great Lakes carrying trainees assigned to her from the Naval Station Great Lakes. ''Wilmette'' was placed "out of commission, in service" on 15 February 1940.<ref name="DANFS" />

Given hull designation IX-29 on 17 February 1941, she resumed training duty at Chicago on 30 March 1942, preparing armed guard crews for duty manning the guns on armed merchantmen. That assignment continued until the end of World War II in Europe obviated measures to protect transatlantic merchant shipping from German U-boats.<ref name="DANFS" />

During August 1943, ''Wilmette'' transported [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[William D. Leahy|Admiral William D. Leahy]], [[James F. Byrnes]] and [[Harry Hopkins]]<ref name="munity" /> on a 10-day fishing vacation in McGregor and [[Whitefish Bay]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mount |first=Graeme S. |date=July 2001 |title=Myths and Realities: FDR's Vacation on Lake Huron, 1–7 August 1943 |url=https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol11/nm_11_3_23to32.pdf |journal=The Northern Mariner |volume=XI |issue=3 |pages=23–32 |doi=10.25071/2561-5467.600 |s2cid=247554079 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231018032040/https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol11/nm_11_3_23to32.pdf |archive-date=2023-10-18}}</ref>

On 9 April 1945, she was returned to full commission for a brief interval. ''Wilmette'' was decommissioned on 28 November 1945, and her name was deleted from the Navy list on 19 December 1945. During 1946, ''Wilmette'' was offered for sale, but on 31 October 1946, she was sold to the Hyman Michaels Company for scrapping, which was completed in 1947.<ref name="DANFS" />