Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online:
Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

Metuchen (PC 781)
ex-PC-781



Call sign:
November - Whiskey - Quebec - Juliet
PC-461 Class Submarine Chaser:

  • Laid down 11 November 1942 at Commercial Iron Works, Portland, OR
  • Launched 24 December 1942
  • Commissioned USS PC-781, 9 July 1943
  • Decommissioned 14 August 1946 at Bay City, MI
  • Placed in service as a naval reserve training vessel in July 1947 in the 9th Naval District (Great Lakes)
  • Placed out of service 18 November 1949 at Norfolk, VA and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Norfolk Group
  • Named Metuchen 15 February 1956
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 November 1959
  • Sold for scrap 14 August 1959 to Hughes Brothers Inc. of New York, NY.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 450 t.
  • 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, five 20mm guns, two rocket launchers, and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,440bhp Hooven-Owen-Rentschler R-99DA diesel engines (Serial No. 7719 and 7720), Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PC-784 59k c. 1945
    (Right to left): PC-793, PC-784, PC-785, PC-781, and an unknown PC at Adak, Alaska.    		 Harry Wilson, GM2, USN
    via Allan M. Wilson
    View the Metuchen (PC 781)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
    Additional Resources and Web Sites 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
    Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster
    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History