The first USS Courtney (SP-375) was a patrol vessel and minesweeper in commission in the United States Navy from 1917-1919. Courtney was built in 1912 by Jackson and Sharpe, Boatbuilders of Wilmington, Delaware, as Warren J. Courtney, a wooden-hulled steam fishing vessel of the "Menhaden Fisherman" design. The U.S. Navy acquired her from the C. E. Davis Packing Company of Reedville, Virginia, on 28 May 1917 for World War I service. She was designated SP-375, but before she could be put into commission as USS Warren J. Courtney the Navy shortened her compound name to the surname only under the terms of General Order No. 314 promulgated on 28 July 1917. She thus was commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia, on 10 August 1917, as USS Courtney (SP-375).