USS PC-496
USS PC-496
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | PC-496 |
Builder | Leathem D. Smith Coal and Shipbuilding Co. , Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin |
Cost | $1,600,000[1] |
Laid down | 24 April 1941 |
Launched | 22 November 1941 |
Commissioned | 26 February 1942 |
Fate | Torpedoed by an Italian submarine, 4 June 1943 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | PC-461-class submarine chaser |
Displacement | 280 tons (light), 450 tons (full) |
Length | 173 feet 8 inches (52.93 meters) |
Beam | 23 feet (7.0 meters) |
Draft | 10 feet 10 inches (3.30 meters) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 20.2 knots |
Complement | 65 |
Armament |
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USS PC-496 was a
Construction
PC-496 was built by
Service history
After PC-496 was built in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, she traversed the
PC-496 continued escorting convoys until she was tasked with escorting a convoy of
Aftermath
The Navy reported that the cause of PC-496's foundering was due to underwater explosions or a single blast. The surviving crewmen remember it as a single explosion and believed it to most likely have been caused by an underwater mine. However, several years later, Second Class Yeoman Carter Barber, who had been on board PC-496 at the time, heard that the explosion was caused by a torpedo fired from an Italian submarine, the commander of which had mistaken PC-496 for a destroyer, and being later court-martialed for wasting a torpedo on such a small ship.[4]
Per naval documents in service records, one of the rescuing ships was U.S.S. SC-639 at Bizerte, Tunisia. The crew rescued 53 of the survivors of PC-496 per R.A.R. Pinkham, Lieut., USNR, Commanding.
References
- ^ a b "Information on WWII PCs". Patrol Craft Sailor Association. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ "USS PC-496 (PC-496)". Uboat.net. Retrieved 27 June 2013.