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

Onyx (PYc-5)



Call sign:
Nan - Uncle - Fox - George
Coastal Patrol Yacht:

  • Built in 1924 as the yacht Janey III by Consolidated Shipbuilding Corp., Morris Heights, NY
  • Subsequently renamed Rene and Pegasus
  • Acquired by the Navy 3 December 1940
  • Commissioned USS Onyx (PYc-5), 27 February 1941
  • Decommissioned 15 May 1944 and placed in service as a target vessel
  • Placed out of service 1 February 1945
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration 2 February 1945
    Naval Vessel Register of 1 January 1949 lists transfer to the War Shipping Administration as October 1945
  • Struck from the Naval Register 8 February 1945
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 190 t.
  • Length 118' 7"
  • Beam 21' 6"
  • Draft 8'
  • Speed 12 kts.
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, six .30 cal. machine guns and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: One 720bhp diesel engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Onyx 7k
    Namesake:

    Onyx - A semi-precious stone: translucent quartz in parallel layers of different shades of color

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 12 September 2020
    AMc-202/Onyx 154k Original photo: c. February 1942
    New York Navy Yard
    Astern of the trawler Cohasset which was being converted to YP-389
    U.S. Navy photo from the Virginian-Pilot
    Replacement photo: Cohasset, undergoing conversion at the Marine Basin, Brooklyn, N.Y., 14 February 1942, with coastal patrol yacht Onyx (PYc-5) (ex-Pegasus) astern and Cohasset’s sistership, Lynn, at far left in foreground, also undergoing transformation from trawler to patrol vessel (YP-388)
    Bureau of Ships photo BS-32348 from the National Archives    		 Original photo: Gary Priolo
    Replacement photo: Naval History and Heritage Command
    Replaced photo added 12 September 2020
    View the Onyx (PYc 5)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
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