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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
Photo Archive
Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Whitehall (PCE 856)
ex-Whitehall (PCE[R] 856)
ex-PCE(R)-856



Call sign:
November - Yankee - Foxtrot - Papa

ex-PCE-856

PCE(R)-848 Class Patrol Craft Escort (Rescue):

  • Originally planned as PCE-856 but reclassified PCE(R)-856 in June 1943
  • Laid down 17 December 1943 at Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co., Chicago, Illinois
  • Launched 21 April 1944
  • Commissioned USS PCE(R)-856, 11 November 1944
  • Decommissioned 23 June 1946 at Norfolk, VA
  • Placed in service in July 1946 as a Naval Reserve training ship assigned to the 4th Naval District (Philadelphia)
  • Recommissioned 18 November 1950
  • Named Whitehall, 15 February 1956
  • Reclassified as a Patrol Craft Escort, PCE-856, 15 March 1962
  • Decommissioned 1 July 1970 at Philadelphia, PA and struck from the Naval Register
  • Reportedly sold for scrap 17 May 1973 to the R. W. Denny Corp. of Montvale, NJ, but in fact sold in 1970 to Eastern Seaboard Pile-Driving of Montvale and renamed Donna Marie
  • Converted to a tug in 1974
  • Sold in 1980 to Standard Products Co. Inc. of Reedsville, VA and renamed Atlantic Surf
  • Sold to Omega Protein Inc. of Hammond, LA and renamed Atlantic Shore
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 903 t.
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33' 1"
  • Draft 9' 5"
  • Speed 15.7 kts.
  • Complement 99
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 40mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks and two depth charge projectors
  • Propulsion: Two 1,000bhp General Motors 12-278A diesel engines, Falk single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS PCE(R)-856
    Whitehall 65k 30 November 1944
    Bureau of Ships photo from Allied Escort Ships of World War II by Peter Elliott    		 Krlicbegovic Edib
    Bosnia & Hercegovina
    PC-1224 106k c. 1945
    Being towed by PC-1224 off Miami Beach, FL
    Photos from the collection of Stephen Kohut    		 Frank Deak
    PC-1224 89k
    PC-1224 70k
    PC-1224 66k
    PC-1224 215k
    Whitehall 116k c. 1952
    Havana, Cuba    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photos added 4 August 2021
    Whitehall 114k c. June 1952
    SN Morris, YNSN Dodds and GMSN Gregory manning a 20mm mount
    USS Whitehall (PCE 856)
    Whitehall 32k
    Namesake:

    A town in Washington County, N.Y., at the southern end of Lake Champlain. Whitehall has been called the birthplace of the United States Navy since that was where Benedict Arnold constructed 16 small ships in 1776 to prevent a British fleet from invading American territory down the Lake Champlain-Hudson River corridor. The American ships were defeated on 11 October 1776 at the Battle of Valcour Island, but they delayed the British advance and then won a great strategic victory by enabling the Americans to have another year in which to strengthen their forces in the area. Thus, a year later, the Americans defeated the British at Saratoga in the pivotal battle of the War for Independence

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Whitehall 53k Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    Whitehall 86k Tommy Trampp
    Whitehall
    1202085615    		 64k Moored, location unknown, but probably Philadelphia area, 26 July 1963. Dave Wright
    Whitehall 135k c. spring 1968 Ed Zajkowski
    Whitehall
    Whitehall 84k Whitehall model box cover Tommy Trampp
    Whitehall 60k Wooden model of Whitehall
    Whitehall 134k c. 1970
    Philadelphia Navy Yard    		 Ron Reeves
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Maynard Lee Berry, USNR11 November 1944 - 26 November 1945
    02LTJG Harry L. Hosford, USNR26 November 1945 - 17 January 1946
    03LTJG John H. MacPartlin, USNR17 January 1946
    04LT William Henry Meanix, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 194918 November 1950
    05LCDR Walter Henry Carpenter, USNJuly 1954 - January 1955
    06LCDR Walter Henry Carpenter, USNJuly 1954 - January 1955
    07LT Richard Frederick Rockwell, USN1956 - 1957
    08LT Raymond Edmond Wyatt, USN - USNA Class of 19571963 - 1965
    09LT Ronald Lage Segerblom, USNMay 1966 - February 1968
    10LT Philip Clare Pauzé, USN/USNR - Awarded the Meritorious Service Medal (1989)
    Retired as Captain    		February 1968 - December 1969
    ??LT John Louden Beck, USN - USNA Class of 1954
    ??LT Donald Ray Rhodes, USN - USNA Class of 1965
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Whitehall (PCE 856)
    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 Index Back to the Patrol Craft Escort (PCE) Photo Index
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by David Wright
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History
    Last Updated 16 February 2024