Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
Photo Archive

USCGC Lamar (WTR 899)
ex-USS Lamar (PCE-899)
ex-USS PCE-899



Call sign:
November - Yankee - Hotel - Mike

Lamar served both the U. S. Navy and Coast Guard

PCE-842 Class Patrol Craft Escort:

  • Laid down 11 January 1943 by the Williamette Iron and Steel Corp., Portland, Oregon
  • Launched 11 August 1943
  • Commissioned USS PCE-899, 17 March 1945
  • Decommissioned 16 December 1949 at Philadelphia, PA and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet
  • Recommissioned 13 December 1950 at Milwaukee, WI and assigned as a Naval Reserve training vessel
  • Named Lamar, 15 February 1956
  • Decommissioned 28 May 1964 at Philadelphia and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet
  • Struck from the Naval Register in June 1964
  • Transferred to the Coast Guard 29 July 1964
  • Commissioned USCGC Lamar (WTR-899), 11 September 1965
  • Decommissioned 30 September 1969
  • Sold for scrap 8 November 1971 to Foison Industries Corp. of Taiwan for $23,300.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 640 t.
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33' 1"
  • Draft 9' 8"
  • Speed 16 kts.
  • Complement 99
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, three 40mm gun mounts, four 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks, four depth charge projectors and one depth charge projector (hedgehog)
  • Propulsion: Two 2,000bhp General Motors 12-278A diesel engines, Falk single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS PCE-899
    PCE-899 53k 27 March 1945 HyperWar U.S. Navy in WWII
    PCE-899 422k Replacement photo: 27 March 1945
    The newly completed PCE-899. Note the SA air-search radar at the masthead to complement the usual surface-search set
    Photo from U.S. Small Combatants: An Illustrated Design History, by Norman Friedman    		 Original photo: HyperWar U.S. Navy in WWII
    Replacement photo: Robert Hurst
    PCE-899 82k c. 1945
    Bureau of Ships photo from Allied Escort Ships of World War II by Peter Elliott    		 Krlicbegovic Edib
    Bosnia & Hercegovina
    USS Lamar (PCE 899)
    PCE-899 100k Historical Collections of the
    Great Lakes
    PCE-899 337k Undated post card of Lamar at Duluth-Superior Docks Mike Brock
    PCE-899 116k c. Summer 1954
    Lamar, moored three deep with her six sister PCEs at the pier at the Great Lakes Naval Base, where they took aboard supplies for their two-week reserve training cruises. The flagship Daniel A. Joy (DE 585) is in the background    		 Don Garner, DE-585
    PCE-899 237k c. 1959
    Milwaukee, WI    		 James G. Brown
    PCE-899 114k 20 September 1961
    Near Sheboygan, WI
    The balloon is involved in a cosmic ray plates test
    Photo from Dave's print collection    		 Dave Schroeder and John Chiquoine
    Photo added 18 September 2019
    USCGC Lamar (WTR 899)
    PCE-899 53k Robert Hurst
    PCE-899 122k c. 1967
    U.S. Coast Guard photo
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Charles E. Pigg, Jr., USN17 March 1945
    02LT Martin H. Seaver, USNR12 September 1946
    03LT L. C. Riley, USN13 December 1950
    04CDR Warren Lewis Story, USNSeptember 1955
    ??LCDR Donald Ellsworth Minnich, USN
    ??LT Ernest Calhoun Hipp, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1944
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR William T. Rockwell, Jr., USCG11 September 1965 - 10 June 1967
    02LCDR Ernest Bizzozero, USCG10 June 1967
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Lamar (PCE-899)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    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 Type Index Back to the Patrol Craft Escort (PCE) Photo Index
    Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster
    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History