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Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

Houghton (PCC 588)
ex-PCC-588
ex-PC-588



Call sign:
November - Whiskey - Kilo - Bravo
PC-461 Class Submarine Chaser:

  • Laid down 22 November 1941 by Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Co., Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
  • Launched 3 May 1942
  • Commissioned USS PC-588, 22 June 1942
  • Suffered blast damages 29 January 1945 after Serpens (AK 97) was sunk by explosion of undetermined origin at Guadalcanal, Solomons
  • Reclassified as an Control Submarine Chaser, PCC-588 in August 1945
  • Visited Auckland, New Zealand 27 May - 8 June 1945
  • Decommissioned 29 July 1946 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and laid up in the Columbia River Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists plan for decommissioning and placing in reserve as January 1947
  • Named Houghton 15 February 1956
  • Struck from the Naval Register 1 April 1959
  • Sold 11 May 1960 and sold to Geomarine Services Inc.
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 280 t.(lt), 450 t.(fl)
  • Length 173' 8"
  • Beam 23'
  • Draft 10' 10"
  • Speed 20.2 kts.
  • Complement 65
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, one 40mm gun mount, three 20mm guns, two rocket launchers, four depth charge projectors, and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,440bhp General Motors 16-258S diesel engines, Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PC-588
    PC-588 110k Soon after launching Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    USS PC-588
    PC-588 68k National Archives photo 80-G-276614 Bob Daly/PC-1181
    PC-588 300 Original photo: c. 1942
    Sea trial on Lake Michigan
    National Archives photo 80-G-276603
    Replacement photo: 4 February 1943
    Underway in the Hawaiian area
    National Archives photo 80-G-276603    		 Original photo: National Archives
    Replacement photo: Naval History and Heritage Command
    Photo replaced 18 October 2021
    USS PCC-588
    PC-588 43k September 1945
    Okinawa
    Hagushi Harbor, western side.    		 Bill Kinney SC-1281
    via E. J. Comeau PC552/1228
    Commanding Officers
    01LT J. R. Hinton, USNR22 January 1942
    02LTJG W. Madison, USNR1945
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the Houghton (PC 588)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Additional Resources and Websites of Interest
    Patrol Craft Sailors Association
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Ship Type Index Back to the Submarine Chaser (PC) Photo Index
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
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