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

Moonstone (PYc 9)

Sunk 16 October 1943
Coastal Patrol Yacht:

  • Built 1929 as the yacht Nancy Baker by Germania Werft, Kiel, Germany
  • Renamed Mona
  • Acquired by the Navy as the yacht Lone Star 10 February 1941
  • Converted for Naval service at Gibbs Gas Engine Co., Jacksonville, FL
  • Commissioned USS Moonstone (PYc-9), 10 April 1941
  • Sunk by collision with USS Greer (DD-145), 16 October 1943 off the Delaware Capes
  • Struck from the Naval Register 26 October 1943
  • Today Moonstone lies in 130 ft. on a sandy bottom, intact and upright. The gaping hole in her port side gives clear evidence of the collision, and the engine room can be accessed by entering the impact
    site. Caution is advised because of loose debris, and wire cable in which to get entangled is everywhere. Her stern still has depth charges lined up in racks. The midsection superstructure has fallen into the compartments below. Her deck in some places rises almost 35 ft. off the sand. The 3 inch deck gun still stands on her bow, just behind a hatch which leads to the crews quarters.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 645 t.
  • Length 171' 9"
  • Beam 26' 9"
  • Draft 10' 6"
  • Speed 12 kts.
  • Complement 50
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two .30 cal. machine guns and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 800bhp diesel engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Lone Star
    Moonstone 100k
    USS Moonstone (PYc 9)
    Moonstone 15k
    Namesake:

    Moonstone is a sodium potassium aluminum silicate ((Na,K)AlSi3O8) of the feldspar group that displays a pearly and opalescent schiller. An alternative name is hecatolite

    		 Tommy Trampp
    Photo added 18 August 2020
    Moonstone 236k U.S. Navy photo Original photo: New Jersey Scuba Diver Website
    Replacement photo: Tommy Trampp
    View the Moonstone (PYc-9)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
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