During World War II, the U.S. Navy operated a number of seagoing yachts that had been taken over from their owners by the U.S. Maritime Commission. A few of the largest were typed PG-Gunboat, while smaller yachts received PY-Yacht-series hull numbers. Still smaller were the 52 craft eventually typed in the PYc-Yacht, Coastal, category, although other small yachts and motor launches taken into the Navy were given YP-District Patrol Vessel ("Yippee") hull numbers. Three PYcs are shown here.
The classic yacht-hulled Paragon (PYc-36), built by Bath Iron Works in 1929, was commissioned under her original name in September 1942. Sporting a 19th-century 6-pounder gun forward, two 20-mm antiaircraft guns, and depth charges, she operated mainly in the Los Angeles-San Pedro area until stricken in July 1944.
Resplendent in peacetime livery at the time of her commissioning in February 1941, the Amethyst (PYc-3) eventually received a 40-mm antiaircraft gun in place of the ancient 3-pounder seen here, and by 1944 sported two .50-caliber water-cooled machineguns and two depth charge racks as well. She was built in 1931 as the yacht Samona II and was taken over by the Maritime Commission in September 1940 and altered for Navy use. In 1944, the Amethyst was transferred to Coast Guard control and operated until February 1946.
The yacht Vara, built by Herreshoff in 1929, served initially as the nameless submarine chaser PC-509 (as seen in this March 1943 view) but was redesignated PYc-51 and named Valiant in July 1943. After serving from 1942 into 1944 as a convoy escort between Panama and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she was decommissioned in September 1944. Her antisubmarine armament included two Mk 20 Mousetrap rocket launchers, two depth charge racks, and two K-guns, while a 3-inch and three 20-mm guns provided surface and air defense.