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Patrol Yacht Photo Archive

Azurlite (PY 22)



Call sign:
Nan - Baker - King - Love
Patrol Yacht:

  • Built by Krupp Germania, Kiel, Germany (YN 497)
  • Completed for William L. Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA, as the yacht Vagabondia (ON 228124), November 1928
  • Purchased by the Navy, 09 December 1941
  • Renamed Azurlite and designated as a Patrol Yacht PY-22, 22 December 1941
  • Commissioned at Brooklyn, NY, 16 March 1942
  • Decommissioned at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA, 22 January 1946
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 25 February 1946
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration, 29 January 1947
  • Registered under British flag to J.S. Webster & Sons, George Town, Cayman Islands, as refrigerated cargo ship Azurlite (British ON 171277), July 1947
  • Registered to Royal B. Bodden, George Town, Cayman Islands, 1948
  • Registered to Cayman Islands Co., Ltd., George Town, 1953
  • Registered under Panamanian flag to Pablo Klimpel, Panama as Pacific Reefer, 1968
  • Final disposition, deleted from registers, 1986

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,200 t.
  • Length 210' 11"
  • Beam 34'
  • Draft 12'
  • Speed 13.2 kts.
  • Complement 67
  • Armament: Two 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts and four .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: Two Krupp diesel engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Namesake
    Azurlite 60k Azurite is a soft, deep-blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits. During the early 19th century, it was also known as chessylite, after the type locality at Chessy-les-Mines near Lyon, France. The mineral, a carbonate, has been known since ancient times, and was mentioned in Pliny the Elder's Natural History under the Greek name kuanos ("deep blue," root of English cyan) and the Latin name caeruleum. The blue of azurite is exceptionally deep and clear, and for that reason the mineral has tended to be associated since antiquity with the deep blue color of low-humidity desert and winter skies. The modern English name of the mineral reflects this association, since both azurite and azure are derived via Arabic from the Persian lazhward, an area known for its deposits of another deep blue stone, lapis lazuli ("stone of azure") Tommy Trampp
    USS Azurlite (PY-22)
    Azurlite
    12132206    		 391k Vagabondia at Marine Harbor, Brooklyn, NY, awaiting conversion for naval service, 19 December 1941.
    USN photo FG 44 C 1644    		 Darryl Baker
    Azurlite 62k
    Azurlite 73k
    Azurlite 82k
    Azurlite 65k
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Philip H. Dennier, Jr., USNR16 March 1942 - September 1943
    02LTJG Charles Sanders, USNRSeptember 1943 (Acting)
    03LT Philip H. Dennier, Jr., USNRSeptember 1943 - March 1944
    04LCDR Russell Hawkins, Jr., USNRMarch 1944 - September 1944
    05LT Joseph C. Tyler, Jr., USNRSeptember 1944 - July 1945
    06LT Robert H. Baker, USNRJuly 1945 - 3 November 1945
    07LT Edward R. Bergin, USNR3 November 1945 - 22 January 1946
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler
    View the Azurlite (PY 22)
    DANFS History entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command Website
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Dave Wright
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    Last Updated 09 June 2024