single plane aloft. That aircraft – which took off from Naranyas Cay – represented a carrier air group, and made her approach to the canal undetected. It dropped ten miniature bombs and theoretically "destroyed" the Gatun spillway. After returning to Key West on 11 April, Wright spent the next two years off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, operating out of Hampton Roads and Newport in waters that ranged from the Virginia Capes to the Virgin Islands. 1925–1932 Wright ultimately departed Hampton Roads on 21 January 1925 as flagship for Captain Harry E. Yarnell, Commander, Air Squadrons, Scouting Fleet, bound for the Pacific Ocean. After transiting the Panama Canal, the tender reached Pearl Harbor on 25 February and operated in the Hawaiian area until 8 June when she proceeded back to the East Coast of the United States, reaching Norfolk on 18 July. Soon after Wright return to the Eastern Seaboard, work began to convert the ship to a "heavier-than-air aircraft tender" and, by 1 December, the work was complete. Reclassified AV-1, the tender continued to support the seaplanes of the Scouting Fleet, operating out of Hampton Roads and Newport, to ports of Florida, Cuba, and Panama. As flagship for Commander, Aircraft Squadrons, Scouting Force reclassified to Commander, Aircraft, Scouting Force in 1932, Wright usually spent four months of each winter in operations out of Guantanamo Bay in waters reaching from Panama to the Virgin Islands. For the remainder of the year, she worked in the Narragansett Bay and Chesapeake Bay areas, operating, as before, out of Hampton Roads and Newport with periodic cruises to the warmer climes of Florida or port visits to New York City. Wrights tending duties along the Eastern Seaboard and into the Caribbean continued until 3 February 1932. Varying her duties as tender were several assignments for special service. Special services, 1927–1929 When the United States Coast Guard destroyer rammed and sank the submarine on the afternoon of 17 December 1927 off Provincetown, Massachusetts, Wright immediately loaded six salvage pontoons at the Norfolk Navy Yard and set out for the scene of the disaster. Although delayed by strong Atlantic gales, Wright reached Provincetown, via Boston, on the afternoon of 21 December. Meanwhile, on the day that Wright departed Norfolk, her commanding officer, specially detached, Captain Ernest J. King, took the train from Norfolk to New York and proceeded thence by plane to Provincetown. Arriving