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Gunboat Photo Archive

St. Augustine (PG 54)

Sunk 5 January 1944
Patrol Gunboat:

  • Built in 1929 as the steel-hulled yacht Viking by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Newport News, VA for George L. Baker
  • Sold in 1938 to Norman B. Woolworth and renamed Noparo
    (The name was an acronym blending parts of the first names of his three children, Norman, Pamela and Robert)
  • Acquired by the Navy 5 December 1940 at New London, CT
  • Converted for Naval use at Bethlehem Steel Corp., Boston, MA
  • Renamed St. Augustine 9 January 1941
  • Commissioned USS St. Augustine (PG-54), 16 January 1941
  • Sunk by collision with merchant tanker Camas Meadows 5 January 1944 off Cape May, NJ with heavy loss of life
  • Struck from the Navy Register 22 January 1944.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,720 (fl) t.
  • Length 272' 2"
  • Beam 36'
  • Draft 14' 6"
  • Speed 14 kts.
  • Complement 185
  • Armament: Two 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts
  • Propulsion: Turbo-electric, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    SY Viking
    St Augustine 144k Photo courtesy of Deer Isle-Stonington Historical Society from Floating Palaces America's Queens of the Sea by William A. Haviland and Barbara L. Britton Joe Radigan
    USS St. Augustine (PG 54)
    St Augustine 39k Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 27 May 1941
    National Archives photos 19-N-24213, 19-N-24214 and 19-N-24215    		 Naval Historical Center
    St Augustine 38k
    St Augustine 37k
    St Augustine 190k 6 April 1943
    Brooklyn Navy Yard, NY
    Moored outboard of Zircon (PY 16)
    National Archives photo    		 John Chiquoine
    St Augustine 132k Underway off the U.S. East Coast (position 37° 04' N, 74° 45' W), 22 May 1943. Photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-14, flying out of Naval Air Station Weeksville, North Carolina
    U.S. Navy photo NH 98190    		 Naval Historical Center
    St Augustine 161k c. 1943
    U.S. Navy photo    		 Joe Radigan
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR John R. Litchfield, Jr., USNR31 December 1940 - July 1941
    02LCDR Charles Horace Kendall Miller, USNJuly 1941 - September 1941
    03LCDR George Ambrose Parkinson, USNR - Retired as Vice AdmiralSeptember 1941 - 22 January 1943
    04LCDR Gordon Ripley Keating, USNR22 January 1943 - June 1943
    05LT Parker Crosby Hatch, USNJune 1943 - 5 January 1944
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves
    View the St. Augustine (PG-54)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Ship Index Back to the Patrol Gunboat (PG) Photo Index
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
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