The first USS Fearless (SP-724) was a United States Navy tug in commission from 1917 to 1921.

Fearless was built as a commercial steam fishing trawler of the same name in 1877.

Assigned the section patrol number 724, she was commissioned as USS Fearless (SP-724) in 1917.

Assigned to the 4th Naval District, Fearless served for the rest of World War I as a tug in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area.

She apparently remained in naval service after the end of the war.