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

Black Douglas (PYc 45)

Call sign:
Nan - Yoke - Dog - Nan

ex-Black Douglas (IX 55)

Black Douglas served both the U. S. Navy and Fish and Wildlife Service

Coastal Patrol Yacht:

Laid down 22 November 1929 as the 3-masted Staysail Auxiliary Schooner Grenadier by Bath Iron Works, Bath, ME for Robert C. Roebling of Savannah, GA

Renamed Black Douglas prior to completion

Launched 9 June 1930

Delivered 29 July 1930

Sold to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in September 1941

Acquired by the Navy in 1942 and classified as a Miscellaneous Unclassified Auxiliary, IX-55

Placed in service as USS Black Douglas (IX 55), 18 April 1942

Reclassified a Coastal Patrol Yacht, PYc-45, 8 April 1943

Commissioned USS Black Douglas (PYc 45), 19 April 1943

Decommissioned 20 September 1944 at Puget Sound Navy Yard

Returned to the Fish and Wildlife Service 4 October 1944

Struck from the Navy Register 14 October 1944

Transferred to the Bureau of Fisheries in 1960 as a research vessel

Sold in 1966 to Louis Black

Sold in 1972 to the George Stoll family, owners of the Flint School in Sarasota, FL and renamed teQuest

Sold in 1982 to an investment group of investors and renamed Aquarius

Renamed Aquarius W

Renamed El Boughaz I by her new owner, the King Mohammed VI of Morocco, and is often spotted around Marseille, France

She is presently up for sale at a price of $6,000,000 - $7,000,000. This price is a little high for the amount of yacht, but she now carries a $1-2 million "HISTORICAL" premium

Fate unknown.

Specifications:

Displacement 371 t.

Length 133' 5"

Beam 32'

Draft 12'

Speed 9.5 kts.

Armament: One 4"/50, four .50 cal. machine guns and one "Mousetrap" depth charge projector

Propulsion: Sail (9,111 square feet of canvas) and one 325hp Cooper Bessemer diesel engines, later changed to a 400hp Enterprise diesel engine, and now equipped with two 290hp Volvo diesel engines,

one shaft.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
Schooner Black Douglas
	112	Namesake: Sir James Douglas (also known as Good Sir James and the *Black Douglas*) (c. 1286 – 25 August 1330) was a Scottish knight and feudal lord. He was one of the chief commanders during the Wars of Scottish Independence	Tommy Trampp Photo added 8 July 2021
	945	c. 1930 Diagram showing the layout of of Black Douglas's original below deck plan	Robert Hurst
	110	Showing the amid-ships opening for the engine room
	91	Workmen working amidships
	60	Black Douglas on the stocks
	114k	c. 1930. Bath, ME Under construction	Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
	44k	9 June 1930. Bath, ME Launching	Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
	44	In the water after her launching	Robert Hurst
	177k	c. 1930 Artists rendition of Black Douglas	Maine Maritime Museum
	68k	c. 1930	Cooper Bessemer Diesels Advertisement
	180	Advertisement for Cooper-Bessemer diesel engines from the January 1930 edition of Yachting magazine	Robert Hurst
	45k	c. 1938	Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
	60k	c. 1941 Bainbridge Island, WA
	65k	29 October 1941 Leaving Savannah, GA
USS Black Douglas (PYc 45)
	55k	Original photo: 30 March 1943 U.S. Navy photo Replacement photo: Black Douglas (IX 55) photographed on 30 March 1943 after being refitted as a patrol craft and a few days before being reclassified as a coastal patrol yacht (PYc-45). Her new armament was 1-3"/50 gun forward, 2-20mm guns amidships, and depth charge tracks aft Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 83303	Original photo: Joe Radigan Replacement photo: Mike Green
	87k	c. 1942	Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
	104k	c. 1942 Seattle, WA	Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
FWS Black Douglas
	213k	Black Douglas as a Fish and Wildlife Service ship on San Diego Bay, with view of Coronado Island and Point Loma in background	.
	93k	.	Skidaway Institute of Oceanography
	79k	FWS Black Douglas shown circa 1949 shortly after her return to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Except for the removal of her armament and the addition of two cargo booms forward her appearance has changed little since 1943 NOAA photo ship0309	Mike Green
	201k	c. 1949 Channel Islands, California Photographer O. Wallis, National Park service image 0311 from the NOAA'S Fleet then and Now - Sailing for Science Collection	Robert Hurst
Schooner teQuest
	74k	c. 1979/80	Flint School
Schooner Aquarius
	61k	c. 1983	Flint School
	763	c. 1990 Off the coast of Rhode Island after her restoration in Germany Photo courtesy of W.R. Roebling from NOAA Fisheries	Robert Hurst
El Boughaz I
	114	Namesake: Tangier, Morocco. The nicknames "*El Boughaz*" (The Inlet), "Bride of the North" and "Door of Africa" reference its position in far northwestern Africa near the Strait of Gibraltar	Tommy Trampp Photo added 8 July 2021
	90k		Maunsel White
	235	Photo from Live Yacht website	Tommy Trampp Photo added 8 July 2021
	552	Casablanca, Morocco Photo from Super Yacht Times website	Tommy Trampp Photo added 8 July 2021

Commanding Officers
01	LT Robert Witcher Copeland, USNR - Awarded the Navy Cross (1944) Retired as Rear Admiral	18 April 1942
02	Walter K. E. Johanson, FWS	1944
03	Clyde I. Dell, FWS	1947 - 1948

Courtesy Joe Radigan

View the Black Douglas (PYc 45)
DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website

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This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman