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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
Photo Archive

Ely (PCE 880)
ex-PCE-880



Call sign:
November - Xray - Foxtrot - Alpha
PCE-842 Class Patrol Craft Escort:

  • Laid down 12 August 1943 by the Albina Engine and Machine Works, Portland, OR
  • Launched 27 October 1943
  • Commissioned USS PCE-880, 29 April 1944
  • Named Ely 15 February 1956
  • Placed in service in August 1947 as a Naval Reserve training vessel assigned to the 9th Naval District (Great Lakes)
  • Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1970
  • Transferred 3 September 1970 to the State of Maine (Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute) South Portland, ME and renamed R/V Aqualab II
  • Sold in 1972 to Kirks Marine Enterprise, Inc. of Dover, DE
  • Sold in 1975 to Norman Industries, Inc. of Lafayette, LA
  • Acquired in 1978 by Standard Products Co., Inc. of Kilmarnock, VA and renamed Atlantic Mist
  • Acquired in 1989 by Ampro Fisheries, Inc. of Burgess, VA
  • Acquired by Omega Protein, Inc. of Moss Point, MS
  • In service into 1980
  • Sunk 16 January 2010 as part of an artificial reef approximately 26 miles southeast of Indian River Inlet, DE and lies an equal distance from Cape May, NJ, Ocean City, MD and Indian River Inlet.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 850 t.
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33' 1"
  • Draft 9' 5"
  • Speed 15.7 kts.
  • Complement 99
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount and three twin 40mm mounts
  • Propulsion: Two 900bhp General Motors 12-567A diesel engines, Falk single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Ely 56k Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Ely 99k Moored at the Naval Reserve Training Center Sheboygan, WI Jim Erdman
    Ely 62k Naval Institute Archives Joe Radigan
    Ely 125k c. 1960
    Chicago, IL
    At the Naval Reserve Training Center piers
    Photo by Dave Schroeder    		 John Chiquoine
    Photo added 25 November 2019
    Ely 466k 17 May 1962
    Chicago, IL    		 Richard Vreeke
    Ely 78k U.S. Navy photo from the May 1969 edition of All Hands magazine Joe Radigan
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Leroy E. Newell, USNR29 April 1944
    02LT Robert Anthony Kanak, USN1953 - February 1955
    03LT Charles W. McComis, USN1958
    04LT Ross Daniel Barker, USNApril 1969 - July 1970
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Ely (PCE 880)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Patrol Craft Sailors Association
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Ship Index Back to the Patrol Craft Escort (PCE) Photo Index
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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