The first USS Shad (SP-551) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919.

Shad was built as a private motorboat of the same name by George Lawley & Son at Neponset, Massachusetts in 1907.

On 15 May 1917, the U.S. Navy purchased her from Herbert C. Talbot for use as a section patrol vessel during World War I.

Presumably assigned to the 1st Naval District, Shad served on patrol duties in Boston Harbor at Boston, Massachusetts, for the rest of World War I and during the first few months of 1919.

Shad was decommissioned in 1919, stricken from the Navy List on 18 August 1919, and sold on 10 September 1919 to the J. E. Doherty Company of Boston.