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NavSource Online:
Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

Turquoise (PY-18)

Call sign:
Nan - Baker - Peter - Xray

ex-PC-459

Turquoise served the Navies of the United States and Ecuador

Submarine Chaser/Patrol Yacht:

Laid down 1 August 1922 as the yacht Ohio by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock, Co., Newport News, VA

Launched 16 September 1922

Delivered to her owners, Scripps Howard Newspaper of Chicago, IL in November 1922

Renamed Maramichi, Walucia III, Kallisto and Entropy

Acquired by the Navy 21 August 1940

Entered Gibbs Gas Engine Works, Jacksonville, FL 25 September 1940, for conversion to Naval service

Commissioned USS PC-459, 5 December 1940

Renamed and reclassified as a Patrol Yacht, Turquoise (PY-18), 1 February 1941

Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists reclassification to PY-18 as January 1941

Decommissioned in the Panama Canal Zone 24 December 1943

Transferred to Ecuador under the Lend-Lease Program 29 January 1944 and renamed Nueve de Octobre

Sold outright to Ecuador 13 May 1949

Struck from the Naval Register 7 June 1949

Renamed Esmeraldas in 1949

Ran aground 9 September 1953 in Guayas River, near Guayaquil, Ecuador and declared a total loss.

Specifications:

Displacement 565 t.

Length 172'

Beam 26'

Draft 11'

Complement 60

Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, and two depth charge tracks

Propulsion: Two 750bhp diesel engines, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
Yacht Ohio
	141k		Mark Brooks
USS PC-459
	76k		Mark Brooks
USS Turquoise (PY-18)
	39k	Namesake: *Turquoise* is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue. In recent times, *Turquoise* has been devalued, like most other opaque gems, by the introduction onto the market of treatments, imitations and synthetics	Tommy Trampp
	97k		Mark Brooks
Esmeraldas
	37k		Robert Hurst