USS Mason (DE-529)
USS Mason with dazzle camouflage
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Mason |
| Laid down: | 14 October 1943 |
| Launched: | 17 November 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 20 March 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 12 October 1945 |
| Struck: | 1 November 1945 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Evarts-class destroyer escort |
| Displacement: | 1,140 short tons (1,030 tonnes) |
| Length: | 289 ft 5 in (88.21 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft 1 in (10.69 m) |
| Draft: | 8 ft 3 in (2.51 m) |
| Speed: | 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) |
| Complement: | 156 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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USS Mason (DE-529), an Evarts-class destroyer escort, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named Mason, though DE-529 was the only one specifically named for Ensign Newton Henry Mason. USS Mason was one of two US Navy ships with largely African-American crews in World War II. The other was USS PC-1264, a submarine chaser. These two ships were manned with African Americans as the result of a letter sent to President Roosevelt by the NAACP in mid-December 1941. Entering service in 1944, the vessel was used for convoy duty in the Battle of the Atlantic for the remainder of the war. Following the war, Mason sold for scrap and broken up in 1947.
Her keel was laid down in the Boston Navy Yard, on 14 October 1943. She was launched on 17 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. David Mason, the mother of Ensign Mason, and commissioned on 20 March 1944, with Lt. Commander William M. Blackford, USNR, in command.
Following a shakedown cruise off Bermuda, Mason departed from Charleston, South Carolina, on 14 June, escorting a convoy bound for Europe, arriving at Horta Harbor, Azores, on 6 July. She got underway from Belfast, Northern Ireland, headed for the East Coast on 26 July, arriving at Boston Harbor on 2 August for convoy duty off the harbor through August.
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