The first USS Elizabeth (SP-972) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in service from 1917 to 1919.

Elizabeth was built as a civilian motorboat of the same name in 1916 at West Norfolk, Virginia, and apparently was employed commercially as a ship chandler's workboat.

In August 1917 she was ordered turned over to the U.S. Navy for use as a section patrol boat during World War I.

Assigned to the 5th Naval District, Elizabeth took up patrol duties in the Norfolk, Virginia, area.

On 12 December 1917, she collided with the American steamship SS Northland and sank with the loss of two lives, but she was raised, repaired, and resumed her patrol duties for the rest of World War I and into 1919.