USS Niagara (PG-52)
_entering_Pearl_Harbor_on_31_March_1942.jpg) |
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| History | |
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| Name: | USS Niagara |
| Namesake: | Fort Niagara |
| Builder: | Bath Iron Works, Maine |
| Laid down: | 14 November 1928 |
| Launched: | 7 June 1929 |
| Acquired: | by purchase, 16 October 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 20 January 1941 |
| Reclassified: |
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| Fate: | Sunk in enemy action, 23 May 1943 |
| General characteristics Alexander Corkum | |
| Type: | Patrol gunboat / Motor torpedo boat tender |
| Displacement: | 1,022 long tons (1,038 t) full |
| Length: | 267 ft (81 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (11 m) |
| Draft: | 17 ft (5.2 m) at full load |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) |
| Complement: | 139 officers and enlisted men |
| Armament: | 2 × 3"/50 caliber guns (as a gunboat) |
The seventh USS Niagara (CMc-2/PG-52/AGP-1) was an auxiliary ship of the United States Navy during World War II.
Niagara laid down on 14 November 1928 as the steel-hulled civilian yacht Hi-Esmaro by the Bath Iron Works, Maine, launched on 7 June 1929, and delivered on 20 August. She was purchased by the Navy on 16 October 1940 from Mrs. Hiram Edward Manville of New York City. Converted to a coastal minelayer at the New York Navy Yard, and designated CMc-2 on 31 October 1940, the ship was renamed Niagara, on 12 November 1940, and reclassified as a patrol gunboat, PG-52 on 15 November 1940. She commissioned at New York on 20 January 1941, Lt. Edwin W. Herron in command.
Niagara got underway from New York on 4 February 1941 to tend units of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2 operating between Miami and Key West, Florida, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She departed Key West on 20 March 1941 for repairs at New York and operations at the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island during the summer.
Niagara stood out from New York on 30 August 1941 en route to Hawaii, via Guantanamo Bay, the Panama Canal, and San Diego, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 9 October to patrol on the Hawaiian Sea Frontier. On 29 November she departed as a unit of the escort of a convoy bound to the Fiji Islands. She was at sea with the convoy when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The gunboat returned to that port on 15 December, serving as tender to units of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 1 until 1 April 1942.
She then escorted a convoy to San Diego en route Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, where she tended torpedo boats and helped to guard the approaches to the Panama Canal. During overhaul in the New York Navy Yard in the summer, she fitted out to serve at Newport, Rhode Island, as a school ship for a training squadron of motor torpedo boats.
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