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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft / Gunboat / Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

Topaz (PYc-10)



Call sign:
Nan - Baker - Peter - Mike
Coastal Patrol Yacht:

  • Built in 1931 as the yacht Doromar by the Luders Marine Construction Co., Stamford, Connecticut
  • Acquired by the Navy 14 February 1941
  • Renamed Topaz and designated as a Coastal Patrol Yacht, PYc-10, 3 March 1941
  • Converted for Naval service at Robert Jacob Inc., City Island, New York
  • Commissioned 14 July 1941 at New York
  • Decommissioned 27 September 1944 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Struck from the Naval Register 14 October 1944
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration for disposal in September 1945
  • Sold to Honduran interests
  • Caught fire in the engine room 12 August 1953 and sank en route from Miami, FL to Colon, Panama with a cargo of machinery.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 160 t.
  • Length 111' 8"
  • Beam 18' 11"
  • Draft 7' (mean)
  • Speed 13 kts.
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two .30 cal. machine guns, and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 600bhp Winton diesel engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Doromar
    Doromar 59k Photo from the August 1931 edition of Motor Boating magazine Joe Radigan
    Photo added 7 April 2021
    USS Topaz (PYc 10)
    Topaz 21k
    Namesake:

    Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminum and fluorine with the chemical formula Al2SiO4(F, OH)2. Topaz crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, and its crystals are mostly prismatic terminated by pyramidal and other faces. It is one of the hardest naturally occurring minerals (Mohs hardness of 8) and is the hardest of any silicate mineral. This hardness combined with its usual transparency and variety of colors means that it has acquired wide use in jeweler as a cut gemstone as well as for intaglios and other gemstone carvings

    		 Tommy Trampp
    View the Topaz (PYc-10)
    DANFS History entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command Website
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