USS Abingdon

PC-1237 was a PC-461-class submarine chaser in the service of the United States Navy. She was later given the name Abingdon after the town of Abingdon, Virginia.

On Naval Reserve duty in the Great Lakes c. 1948
History
Name:
  • PC-1237 (1943-1956)
  • Abingdon (1956-1959)
Namesake: Town of Abingdon, Virginia
Builder: Consolidated Shipbuilding Corp., Morris Heights, New York
Yard number: 3141
Laid down: 14 February 1943
Launched: 3 April 1943
Sponsored by: Mrs. David Challinor
Commissioned: 26 July 1943
Decommissioned: October 1949
In service: July 1946
Renamed: Abingdon, 15 February 1956
Stricken: 1 April 1959
Identification:
Fate: Unknown
General characteristics
Class and type: PC-461-class submarine chaser
Displacement:
  • 280 long tons (284 t) (standard)
  • 450 long tons (457 t) (full load)
Length: 173 ft 8 in (52.93 m)
Beam: 23 ft (7.0 m)
Draft: 10 ft 10 in (3.30 m)
Installed power:
Propulsion:
Speed: 20.2 kn (37.4 km/h; 23.2 mph)
Complement: 65
Armament:

PC-1237, hull No. 3141, was laid down on 14 February 1943 at Consolidated Shipbuilding Corp., in Morris Heights, New York;[1] launched on 3 April 1943, sponsored by Mrs. David Challinor; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 26 July 1943 with Lieutenant J. F. Weller, Jr., USNR, in command.[2]

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.[2]

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.[2]

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.[2]

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.[2]

See also

Notes
  1. Shipbuilding 2016.
  2. DANFS 2015.

References
Online sources
  • "Consolidated Shipbuilding, Morris Heights NY". Shipbuilding History. 5 October 2016. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  • "Abingdon". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History & Heritage Command. 16 June 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2016. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  • Photo gallery of USS Abingdon (PC-1237) at NavSource Naval History
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