USS Abingdon (PC-1237)
.jpg) On Naval Reserve duty in the Great Lakes @ 1948. | |
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Abingdon |
| Namesake: | Town of Abingdon, Virginia |
| Builder: | Consolidated Shipbuilding, Morris Heights, New York |
| Laid down: | 14 February 1943 |
| Launched: | 3 April 1943 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. David Challinor |
| Commissioned: | 26 July 1943 |
| Decommissioned: | October 1949 |
| Renamed: | USS Abingdon, February 1956 |
| Struck: | 1 April 1959 |
| Identification: | Hull symbol:PC-1237 |
| Fate: | Unknown |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class and type: | PC-461-class submarine chaser |
| Displacement: | 280 long tons (284 t) light 450 long tons (457 t) full |
| Length: | 173 ft 8 in (52.93 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft (7.0 m) |
| Draft: | 10 ft 10 in (3.30 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 1,440 bhp (1,074 kW) Hooven-Owens-Rentschler R-99DA diesel engines (Serial No. 7021 and 7022) Westinghouse single reduction gear 2 x shafts |
| Speed: | 20.2 knots (37.4 km/h; 23.2 mph) |
| Complement: | 65 |
| Armament: | • 1 × 3"/50 caliber gun • 1 × 40 mm gun • 2 × 20 mm guns • 2 × depth charge tracks • 4 × depth charge projectors |
USS Abingdon (PC-1237) was a PC-461 class coastal patrol ship in the service of the United States Navy, named after the town of Abingdon, Virginia.
She was laid down as the unnamed PC-1237 on 14 February 1943 at Consolidated Shipbuilding in Morris Heights, New York; launched on 3 April 1943, sponsored by Mrs. David Challinor; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 26 July 1943 with Lt. J. F. Weller, Jr. in command.
Service history
World War II
After fitting out, PC-1237 departed New York on 10 August 1943 for New London, Connecticut, arriving there the following day. The submarine chaser then conducted tests under the auspices of the Bureau of Ships for the Underwater Sound Laboratory at New London, Connecticut for the remainder of August. PC-1237 cleared that port on 1 September 1943 for points south; proceeding via Tompkinsville, the ship reached Miami soon thereafter and commenced shakedown training. She completed these evolutions early in October and, proceeding by way of Key West arrived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 12 September.
PC-1237 began escorting convoys between Guantanamo Bay and Trinidad soon thereafter, occasionally touching at Kingston, Jamaica, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, during that time period. She performed that duty until early in 1945. At the beginning of February 1945, the submarine chaser was reassigned to temporary duty conducting tests at Antigua for the Naval Research Laboratory, an assignment that occupied her through the remainder of World War II and the early months of 1946. Late in this period, she visited Frederikstad, St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands, for a port call on Navy Day, 27 October 1945.
Post-war operations
On 24 May 1946, PC-1237 departed San Juan and began a voyage that took her northward along the east coast of the United States, touching at Miami and Norfolk en route, and then up the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes. There, the ship began training naval reservists of the 9th Naval District.
PC-1237 continued naval reserve training duty until she was placed out of commission, in reserve, in October 1949, and was berthed at Norfolk with the Atlantic Reserve Fleet for almost a decade. During that time, in February 1956, she was named Abingdon. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 April 1959, but her subsequent fate is not known.
See also
References
- ↑ "Abingdon (PC-1237)". Navsource.org. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
- Photo gallery of USS Abingdon (PC-1237) at NavSource Naval History