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Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

Wapakoneta (PC 579)
ex-PC-579



Call sign:
November - Uniform - Kilo - Victor
PC-461 Class Submarine Chaser:

  • Laid down 5 January 1942 at Albina Engine and Machine Works Inc., Portland, Oregon
  • Launched 29 April 1942
  • Commissioned USS PC-579, 25 August 1942
  • Named Wapakoneta 15 February 1956
  • Decommissioned 17 December 1955 at Norfolk, VA and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Norfolk Group
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 July 1960
  • Acquired in 1962 by the Typaldos Line of Piraeus, Greece; converted to a pass anger ship and renamed Hydra
  • Scrapped in 1971 at Piraeus.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 280 t.(lt), 450 t.(fl)
  • Length 173' 8"
  • Beam 23'
  • Draft 10' 10"
  • Speed 20.2 kts.
  • Complement 65
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, one 40mm gun mount, three 20mm guns, two rocket launchers, four depth charge projectors, and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,440bhp Fairbanks Morse 38D8 1/8 diesel engines (Serial No. 832353 and 832356), Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PC-579
    Albina Works 504k 28 April 1942
    Albina Engine & Machinery Works    		 Bob Daly/PC-1181
    Ships identified by George Murray
    USS PC-579
    PC-579 32k Post WW II photo Bob Daly/PC-1181
    M/V Hydra
    PC-579 79k Hydra is second from the right Aris Bilalis
    Athens, Greece
    Commanding Officers
    01LTJG Ralph P. Walker, USNR25 August 1942 - December 1942
    02LT Grinnell Morris, USNRDecember 1942 - June 1943
    03LT Fletcher Seymour, USNRJune 1943 - March 1944
    04LT Ralph L. Biggs, USNRMarch 1944 - March 1945
    05LT Henry O. Dyck, Jr., USNRMarch 1945 - June 1945
    06LT Edwin S. Small, USNRJune 1945 - December 1945
    07LTJG Harold S. Conley, Jr., USNRDecember 1945 - June 1946
    08LTJG Alvin H. Rampey, USNRJune 1946 - December 1946
    09LTJG Clarence Raymond Hale, USNDecember 1946 - 1948
    10LT Richard Frederick Rockwell, USN1954 - 1955
    Courtesy Joe Radigan and Wolfgang Hechler
    View the Wapakoneta (PC-579)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
    Additional Resources and Websites 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 Submarine Chaser (PC) Photo Index
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
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