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

Chalcedony (PYc-16)



Call sign:
Nan - Able - How - Nan
Coastal Patrol Yacht:

  • Built 1931 as the yacht Velero III by the Craig Shipbuilding Co., Long Beach, CA expressly for Captain George "G. Allan" Hancock of Hancock, CA, an early benefactor of the University of
    Southern California
  • Acquired by the Navy 15 December 1941
  • Converted for Naval service at San Diego Marine Construction Co., San Diego, CA
  • Commissioned USS Chalcedony (PYc-16), 27 February 1942
  • Decommissioned 10 January 1946 at San Francisco, CA
  • Struck from the Naval Register 21 January 1946
  • Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal 17 October 1946
  • Acquired in 1947 by Nicholas A. Kessler of Los Angeles, CA and renamed Velero III
  • Acquired in 1948 by Indeoendent Tankships, Inc. of Washington, DC and renamed Ahmady
  • Operated in 1949 under the Kuwati flag
  • Acquired by the Kingdom of Iraq for use as the Royal Yacht HIMRY Queen Alia
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,000 t.
  • Length 195' 1"
  • Beam 30'
  • Draft 13' 6"
  • Speed 11.5 kts.
  • Armament: One 3"/23 gun mount
  • Propulsion: Two 850shp Winton 128A diesel engines (replaced in 1954 by two 900bhp Crossley Brothers diesel engines), two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Velero III
    Chalcedony 106k Jim Rogers
    USS Chalcedony (PYc 16)
    Chalcedony 117k c. 1943
    U.S. Navy photo    		 Joe Radigan
    HIMRY Queen Alia
    Chalcedony 566k Robert Hutchinson
    Chalcedony 418k 14 February 1958
    Chalcedony 279k
    Chalcedony 413k c. October 1958
    Chalcedony 282k King Faisel II and and the ships officers
    View the Chalcedony (PYc-16)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Joe Radigan
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