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Gunboat Photo Archive

Hilo (AGP 2)



Call sign:
Nan - Able - Victor - Zebra

ex-PG-58

Patrol Gunboat/Motor Torpedo Boat Tender:

  • Laid down 18 August 1930 as the yacht Caroline by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine for Eldridge H. Johnson
  • Launched 18 July 1931
  • Delivered 23 September 1931
  • Caroline served as a base for scientific research at Easter Island
  • Sold in 1938 to William B. Leeds and renamed Moana
  • Acquired by the Navy 28 November 1941
  • Converted for naval service at Craig Shipbuilding, Long Beach, CA
  • Commissioned USS Hilo (PG-58), 11 June 1942
  • Reclassified as a Motor Torpedo Boat Tender, AGP-2, 13 January 1943
  • Decommissioned 3 March 1946
  • Struck from the Naval Register 20 March 1946
  • Transferred to the Maritime Commission in June 1946
  • Sold 1 July 1946 to Pillsbury and Martingnoni of San Francisco, CA
  • Scrapped in 1958.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 2,350 t.
  • Length 278' 11"
  • Beam 38' 3"
  • Draft 17'
  • Speed 14.5 kts.
  • Complement 105
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount
  • Propulsion: Two 3,000shp Cooper Bessemer diesel engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Yacht Caroline
    Hilo 75k . Bath Iron Works
    Hilo 148k c. 1931
    Main salon    		 Jim Rogers
    Hilo 80k Original photo: Photo from the 1943/1944 edition of Janes Fighting Ships
    Replacement photo: M/Y Caroline probably shown circa 1933 before being laid up in Brooklyn for several years. This yacht was owned by Eldridge R. Johnson, former president of the Victor Talking Machine Co. The press speculated in December, 1936 that the former King Edward VIII of England and Mrs. Wallis Simpson would honeymoon on her if they married
    Photo from Shipscribe    		 Original photo: Robert Hurst
    Replacement photo: Mike Green
    Yacht Moana
    Hilo 83k c. October 1940
    Photo by Morris Rosenfeld    		 Original photo: John Johnston
    Replacement photo: Jim Rogers
    USS Hilo (AGP 2)
    Hilo 20k Namesake: Hilo; Hawaiian pronunciation: ['hilo]) is the largest town and census-designated place in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Island
    of Hawaii    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 22 September 2019
    Hilo 77k Australian War Museum photo 302623 Mike Green
    Hilo 58k c. 1944 John Johnston
    Hilo 96k Photographed on 25 March 1944 at Talasea, New Britain, with a pontoon dock and four PT boats alongside. She has used the dock to lift one of the boats out of the water for maintenance
    U.S. Army Signal Corps photo SC-260913    		 Naval Historical Center
    Hilo 92k Photographed on 8 September 1944 at New Amsterdam Island, Dutch New Guinea, while serving as flagship of Commander Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons
    National Archives photos 19-N-83478 and 80-G-258698
    Hilo 127k
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Frank Asbury Munroe, Jr., USN/USNR - USNA Class of 192511 June 1942 - 12 March 1944
    02LCDR Herrmann Garretson Page, USN12 March 1944 - 7 March 1946
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler
    View the Hilo (PG-58)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Index Back to the Patrol Gunboat (PG) Photo Index Back to the Auxiliary Ship Index Back to the Motor Torpedo Boat Tender (AGP) Photo Index
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
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