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Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

Valiant (PYc 51)



Call sign:
Nan - Jig - Uncle - Love

ex-PC-509



Vara call sign (1930):
Mike - Hypo - George - Jig

Vara call sign (1939):
King - Mike - Preparatory - Zed
Submarine Chaser/Coastal Patrol Yacht
  • Built by Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, RI (YN 385p)
  • Ordered, 15 November 1925
  • Launched, 25 March 1929
  • Completed for Harold Stirling "Mike" Vanderbilt,New York, NY, as yacht Vara (ON 228424), 1929
  • Acquired by the Navy, 07 October 1940
  • Converted for Naval service at the New York Navy Yard
  • Commissioned USS PC-509, 27 December 1940
  • Reclassified as a Coastal Patrol Yacht and named USS Valiant (PYc-51), 15 July 1943
  • Decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard, September 1944
  • Struck from the Naval Register, 14 October 1944
  • Sold by the WSA (War Shipping Administration), 15 June 1945
  • Sold for $32,000 to Hamilton Brothers, Inc., (Walling B. Hamilton), Tampa, FL and renamed Susie Mae Hamilton, homeported Roatoan, Honduras, 1945
  • Registered to Fair Steamship S.A., Panama, renamed Narwhal, 1948
  • Final disposition, stranded on reef NE of Cozumel, Mexico and subsequently sank, 14 February 1948
    Specifications:
    Displacement 190 tons dispalcement, 356 gross tons, 207 net tons
    Length 150' 0" overall, 149' 0" waterline
    Beam 24'
    Draft 8' 6" mean (fl)
    Speed 15 knots
    Complement unknown
    Armament One 3"/50 gun mount, three 20mm AA
    Propulsion two Trieber 12-cylinder diesel engines
    twin screws
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Motor Yacht Vara
    PC-509
    1201050902    		 141k Vara was the only motor yacht of her size that was ever fitted with an outboard rudder....which can clearly be seen in this image Jim Rogers
    USS PC-509
    PC-509
    1201050901    		 88k Underway circa 1943, date and location unknown.
    U.S. Navy photo    		 Joe Radigan
    PC-509
    1201050904    		 897k Another angle underway circa 1943, date and location unknown.
    U.S. Navy photo from collection of Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum    		 Darryl Baker
    Valiant (PYc 51)
    PC-509
    1201050903    		 153k Moored at Pier No. 3, John Mathis Shipyard, Camden, NJ, undergoing conversion to a banana boat, June 1945.
    Mathis Collection, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia, PA    		 John Chiquoine
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR Abraham Cuyler Ten Eyck D-V(S), USNR (USNA 1912)27 December 1940
    02LT James H. Gilman, Jr., USNR15 July 1943 - September 1944
    ??LT James Samuel Spielman, USNR
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Valiant (PYc 51)
    DANFS History entry located at the Naval History & Heritage Command 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 Submarine Chaser (PC) Photo Index Back to the Coastal Patrol Yacht (PYc) Photo Index
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    This page was created by Gary P. Priolo and is maintained by David L. Wright
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History
    Last Updated 28 June 2023