In 1916, the then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the US Navy to design a small anti-submarine vessel that could be built quickly in small civilian boatyards, as if war came, larger shipyards would be busy building larger warships.

[1] Consideration was given to adopting an 80 ft (24 m) wooden Motor Launch built in large numbers by ELCO for the British Royal Navy, but the General Board of the United States Navy thought that these boats were too small to be effective seaboats.

[2] One hundred were sold to France,[4] and a further 121 US Navy SC boats were deployed to Europe to operate off Britain and France and in the Mediterranean, where they supported the Otranto Barrage with the remaining US Navy boats operating off the East Coast of the United States.

[2] Eight of the French SC boats remained in service at the outbreak of World War II.

[14] Two boats were sold to the Bulgarian Navy and saw action in World War II, sinking one Soviet submarine.