USS Aide De Camp (IX-224)—a wooden-hulled motor yacht designed by B. T. Dobson—was built in 1922 at Neponset, Massachusetts by the George Lawley & Sons boatyard for the noted yarn manufacturer, Samuel Agar Salvage, whom she served as Colleen.

The future governor of New Hampshire, John Gilbert Winant, bought the yacht from Karl W. Erikon of New York City in late 1926, or early 1927, and renamed her Ranger.

In 1931, the Boston financier Frederick Henry Prince purchased the yacht and dubbed her Aide De Camp, a name which she bore under her next owners, in turn, Frank D. Comerford and Harvard University.

Upon her activation, the vessel was delivered to Commander, 7th Naval District and assigned to operations for the Bureau of Ordnance conducting underwater sound research while based at Fort Lauderdale, FL.

In private hands, she long remained in Florida waters, serving Gustave G. Copeland of Miami in 1949 and Fred Bowman of DeLand in 1951.