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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

Amber (PYc 6)

Call sign:
Nan - Baker - Fox - Love

Coastal Patrol Yacht:

Built in 1930 as the yacht Infanta by Lake Union Dry Dock Co., Seattle, WA

Renamed Polaris

Purchased by the Navy, 23 December 1940

Renamed Amber and designated a Coastal Patrol Yacht, PYc-6, 10 January 1941

Commissioned USS Amber (PYc-6), 3 March 1941 at Seattle

Decommissioned, 18 October 1944

Struck from the Naval Register, 13 November 1944

Sold back to her original owner, Edward and Katherine Lowe, 13 June 1945

Acquired by the Foss Towing Co., Seattle (now Foss Maritime) and renamed M/Y Thea Foss

As of 2003 she was still operating out of Seattle.

Specifications:

Displacement 260 t.

Length 120'

Beam 21' 5"

Draft 10' 6"

Speed 12.5 kts.

Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount and two depth charge tracks

Propulsion: One 550bhp diesel engine, one shaft.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description		Source
	67k	Off Seattle, WA in No. 5 "Navy gray" in 1941. Amber had been built originally for actor John Barrymore. Note her 3-inch gun forward, and two depth charge tracks aft, as well as her designation PYc 6, at the bow. National Archives photo 80-G-456631 from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships		Original photo: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Replacement photo: Robert Hurst
	74k	c. 2003 In West Sound, off San Juan Island, WA		Jim Rogers

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships:

Amber

A hard, translucent fossil resin which is normally yellowish to brownish in color. Since it can be highly polished, amber is used as a gem.
Polaris—a yacht built in 1930 at Seattle, Washington, by the Lake Union Dry Dock Co.—was purchased by the Navy from Edward and Kathryn Lowe on 23 December 1940, converted for naval service by the Winslow Marine Railway and Shipbuilding Co. Inc., Winslow, Washington; renamed Amber on 10 January 1941 and simultaneously designated PYc-6, and placed in commission at Seattle on 3 March 1941, Lt. W. B. Combs in command.

Amber was assigned to the Inshore Patrol of the 13th Naval District and, from May until early August, operated around Seattle, Tacoma, and Port Townsend, Wash. The patrol craft left Seattle on 6 August on a cruise to Alaska, and visited Ketchikan, Juneau, and Sitka, before returning to Seattle early in September.

In November, the ship was assigned to patrol duty at Astoria, Oregon., and patrolled the Strait of Juan de Fuca off Neah Bay, Wash., under the control of the Northwest Sea Frontier Patrol Group.

Amber was decommissioned on 18 October 1944 and her name was struck from the Navy list on 13 November 1944. The ship was sold back to her former owners on 13 June 1945.

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