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

Agate (PYc 4)



Agate call sign:
Nan - Able - Love - William

ex-Goldcrest (AM-78)

Goldcrest Class Minesweeper/Coastal Patrol Yacht:

  • Built 1930 as the yacht Armina by the Mathis Yacht Building Co., Camden, NJ
  • Renamed Stella Polaris
  • Acquired by the Navy 27 October 1940
  • Began converted to a Minesweeper 27 October 1940 at George Lawley and Son, Neponset, MA
  • Designated AM-78, 2 November 1940
  • Name changed to Goldcrest 14 November 1940
  • Conversion canceled 23 November 1940
  • Reconverted to a Coastal Patrol Yacht and completed as Agate (PYc 4), 20 December 1940
  • Commissioned USS Agate (PYc-4), 31 January 1941
  • Decommissioned 29 September 1944 at Philadelphia, PA
  • Struck from the Navy list 14 October 1944
  • Transferred to the Maritime Commission 3 July 1945 for disposal
  • Sold and renamed Vallarta Alegre and operated as a dinner cruise ship out of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
  • Currently (2010) owned by William Glad and undergoing overhaul at San Diego, CA.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 185 t.
  • Length 110' 6"
  • Beam 21'
  • Draft 8' 6"
  • Speed 13 kts.
  • Armament: Two 3"/23 gun mount and two .30 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: Two 600shp Winton diesel engines, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Stella Polaris
    Agate 161k Stella Polaris on duty as a race committee vessel, during a New York Yacht Club event
    Photo attributed to Edwin Levick, circa 1949-1952    		 Jim Rogers
    Goldcrest (AM 78)
    Goldcrest 23k
    Namesake:

    Goldcrest - A small European bird of the genus Regulus

    		 Tommy Trampp
    USS Agate (PYc 4)
    Agate 64k
    Namesake:

    Agate is variegated chalcedony having its colors arranged in stripes

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 12 September 2020
    Agate 225k 14 February 1941
    Bow view of Agate at Pier 10 of the Boston Navy Yard. On the opposite side of the pier is covered lighter YF-82
    U.S. Navy photo NY2 247-41, Boston National Historical Park Collection    		 Stephen P. Carlson
    Agate 136k 14 February 1941
    Broadside view of Agate at Pier 10, Boston Navy Yard
    Photo description provided by Stephen P. Carlson
    U.S. Navy photo NY2 248-41, Boston National Historical Park Collection    		 Original photo: Gunter Krebs
    Replacement photo: Robert Hurst
    Second replacement photo: Ron Titus
    Agate 127k 14 February 1941
    Stern view of Agate at Pier 10 of the Boston Navy Yard. On the opposite side of the pier is covered lighter YF-82
    U.S. Navy photo NY2 249-41, Boston National Historical Park Collection    		 Stephen P. Carlson
    View the Agate (PYc-4)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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