USS Zircon

This article is about the US naval vessel. For other uses, see Zircon (disambiguation).

USS Zircon (PY-16) during World War II
History
United States
Name	Zircon
Namesake	Zircon
Builder	The Pusey and Jones Corporation, Wilmington, Delaware
Completed	1929
Acquired	9 December 1940
Commissioned	25 March 1941
Decommissioned	10 May 1946
Stricken	5 June 1946
Fate	Transferred to Maritime Commission for disposal 17 October 1946; sold by War Shipping Administration, 24 April 1947
Notes	Operated as private yacht Nakhoda, 1929-1940
General characteristics
Type	Armed yacht
Displacement	1,220 (estimated)
Length	235 ft 4 in (71.73 m)
Beam	34 ft 0 in (10.36 m)
Draft	13 ft 0 in (3.96 m) mean
Speed	14 knots
Complement	108
Armament	2 × 3"/50 gun 6 × .30 cal (7.62 mm) machine guns 2 × depth charge throwers

USS Zircon (PY-16) was an armed yacht that served in the United States Navy from 1941 to 1946.

Construction

Zircon was built by the Pusey and Jones Corporation at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1929, as the private yacht Nakhoda. The US Navy acquired Nakhodka from automobile body manufacturer Fred J. Fisher, of Detroit, Michigan, on 9 December 1940, renamed her Zircon (in accordance with Navy policy of naming vessels of this class for gems or semi-precious stones), and designated her as a patrol yacht PY-16. She was outfitted for naval service at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, and commissioned on 25 March 1941, with Lieutenant Commander Cornelius M. Sullivan in command.

Service history

Though assigned to New London, Connecticut, as an antiaircraft gunnery school ship specializing in machine-gun training for officer trainees, Zircon also conducted inshore patrols and visited ports from New York City to Casco Bay, Maine. Those duties continued until the autumn of 1941, at which time she began making mail and dispatch runs between Portland, Maine, and Argentia, Newfoundland.

In mid-February 1942, Zircon was reassigned to the Eastern Sea Frontier and initially conducted patrols along the coast of New Jersey. Following extensive repairs in June 1942, the converted yacht reported for duty with the Commander, Caribbean Sea Frontier, under whose auspices she escorted convoys between Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and New York City. She steamed back and forth between Cuba and New York City — occasionally calling at some of the islands of the West Indies, notably Trinidad and San Salvador Island — until 1 March 1944. At that juncture, she received a temporary assignment to the United States Coast Guard's weather patrol.

Between March and November 1944, Zircon operated out of Boston, Massachusetts, and plied the waters of the North Atlantic with the weather patrol. However, she continued to participate to some extent in the protection of New York City-Guantanamo Bay convoys and of other mercantile traffic along the North American coast.

On 8 April 1942, Zircon, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Thomas S. Dunstan, USNR, picked up sixteen survivors (twelve crew members, one apprentice seaman, and three passengers) of the merchant ship, Otho, which had been torpedoed by the German U-Boat U-754 five days earlier approximately two hundred miles east of Cape Henry, Virginia (36°25′N 72°22′W), and transported them to Cape May.

On 11 May 1944, Zircon, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Douglas C. Bird, USNR, responded to sightings of explosions approximately fourteen miles outside Boston Harbor and immediately navigated toward the USS YF-415, which had been disposing of obsolete ammunition from the Hingham Naval Ammunition Depot when the fire and explosions occurred. Zircon crew members John Bell Power, Paul Magera, and Henry John O'Toole, in a twenty-foot running boat, rescued fourteen of the YF-415's thirty crew members from the cold waters, as shrapnel was still flying. One of the rescued sailors died the following day from severe burns.

On 16 November 1944, Zircon reported for duty with the Commander, DD-DE (i.e., destroyer-destroyer escort) Shakedown Task Group. That duty lasted until 7 December 1944, when she was designated relief flagship for the Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, based at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She served in that capacity through the end of World War II.

In September 1946, Zircon received orders to report to the Commandant, 6th Naval District at Charleston, South Carolina, to prepare for decommissioning and disposal. On 10 May 1946, she was decommissioned at Charleston. Her name was struck from the Navy List on 5 June 1946, and she was turned over to the Maritime Commission for disposal on 17 October 1946. She was sold by the War Shipping Administration on 24 April 1947.

Zircon's Commanding Officers:

Lt. Commander Cornelius Sullivan, USN, from 25 March 1941 to December 1941 Lt. Commander Thomas S. Dunstan, USNR, from December 1941 to 5 April 1943 Lt. Commander William D. Stevens, USNR, from 5 April 1943 to 30 August 1943 Lt. Douglas C. Bird, USNR, from 30 August 1943 to 12 August 1944 Lt. Commander James L. Cook, Jr. from 12 August 1944 to 31 December 1945

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• Otho (American steam merchant) at UBoat.net
• Boston Deep Wrecks - USS YF-415
• Remembering a deadly explosion off Hingham 68 years later
• World War II veteran to celebrate 70th anniversary of rescue
• USS YF-415
• J.B. Mills Donates Monument for Fallen Friends (PDF)
• USS Zircon (PY-16) at NavSource Online
• My Father Served On The USS Zircon (PY-16) (Facebook Group)