HMCo #426p APc2

"Model of AMc Mine Sweepers [preceding two words crossed out and replaced with] Transports, Apr[il] 1942.
Scale 3/8" = 1.
Templets[sic] made from Bureau of Ships Plans 446519 [and] 446513 and Eldridge-McInnis.
Design No. 287-C-728 Plan No 1.
In order to come fair the model differs from lines as follows:
Waterlines are fuller amidships with more tumble home.
Buttocks are raised forward of sternpost, deadwood faired.
Frame spaces 18.4".
Stations are 3-frame spaces or 4.6', except # 11 - # 11A which is 4-frame spaces or 6.132'.
Deduct 2 3/4" for planking.
Deduct 2 7/8" for deck.
Load W.L. is 10'-0" above base.
Stem as per Eldridge-McInnis plan E-McI. Hull No. 274, Sheet 1.
Bureau of Ships Plan No. 446513." (Source: Herreshoff, A. Sidney DeW.? [Penciled note in Offset Booklet HH.4.082.] Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection, MIT Museum, Cambridge, MA.)

"Two more minesweepers are to be launched at the Herreshoff Boatyard within the next few days. Tomorrow [July 18, 1942] at 2 o'clock at the lower at the lower yard Mr Thomas P. Brightman will perform the traditional christening ceremony as the first minesweeper [#425p APc1] slides down the ways.
On Tuesday afternoon [July 21, 1942 but actually only on August 8, 1942], the second ship [#426p APc2] will be launched at the lower yard with Mrs. Sidney Herreshoff breaking the bottle over the bow." (Source: Anon. "Two Minesweepers To Be Launched Soon." Bristol Phoenix, July 17, 1942, p. 2.)

"Mrs Sidney Herreshoff was sponsor of the APC-2 which was launched on Saturday [August 8, 1942] at the Herreshoff Mfg. Co. yards. The APC-2 is the second of the special-task boats which are in construction at Herreshoffs. Lt Cmd. C H Paulsen, from the Office of the Supervisor of Shipbuilding at Quincy, Mass. witnessed the launching." (Source: Anon. "Bristol and Vicinity." Bristol Phoenix, August 11, 1942, p. 2.)

"Wreck of USS APc-2
Laid down in May 1942 at the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co as a Coastal Minesweeper, USS APc-2 was converted midway through her building to a Coastal Transport Ship and would have commissioned for service in the Fall of 1942.
Assigned to the Pacific Theatre, the APc-2 assumed the unsung but vital role of ferrying stores, personnel and munitions around the myriad of islands in the Southern Solomons, all the while under constant threat of air, sea or submarine attack. Assigned to the naval task force operating in the campaign to retake the Bismarck Archipelago in late 1943, after several months in theatre, the APc-2 operated with the Amphibious Invasion Force off Arawe in mid December 1943. Enduring several air attacks during the landing on December 15th, the APc-2 and her crew went about their duties offloading cargo as the fighting moved inland over the next few days, but were kept on near-constant alert.
Dawn on December 21st found the APc-2 and her crew preparing to resume her duties of offloading stores for the troops ashore and providing AA cover for the busy landing craft. The mornings relative calm was shattered by flash reports from the Destroyer Screen offshore reporting a formation of enemy planes inbound on the landing force, which send the crew of APc-2 and every other ship racing to battle stations. Within minutes, the first of several Japanese dive bombers appeared overhead and the fight began.
Despite the crew onboard the APc-2 firing every gun onboard at their attackers, a single Japanese Aichi D3A1 'Val' Dive Bomber swooped down on the ship and released its bombload. Both of the planes wing-mounted bombs straddled the APc-2 and detonated, saving her crew from certain death but warping and severely damaging the wooden hull of the ship. The crew topside returned to their guns and kept up the fight, but below decks the inrushing water quickly began to overwhelm her pumps and flooded the engine room, bringing the ship to a dead stop.
Realizing that without power for her pumps and with her wooden hull opened up across several seams the ship was doomed, the Captain of APc-2 ordered the abandon ship as the decks began to swamp. With Japanese aircraft still in the area, the crew of APc-2 abandoned ship onto waiting landing craft shortly before the APc-2 rolled over and sank at this location on December 21st, 1943.
For her actions on the date of her loss USS APc-2 received her first and final Battle Star for her World War Two service." (Source: http://wikimapia.org/14833471/Wreck-of-USS-APc-2, retrieved February 22, 2011.)

"Class: APC-1
Design: Navy APC-1
Displacement (tons): 161 light, 258 lim.
Dimensions (feet): 103.25' oa, 98.2' wl x 21.25' e x 9.25' lim.
Original Armament: 4-20mm single
Later armaments: 2-20mm single (1943: APc 87-90, 93-98, 110-111)
Complement: 21 (1944)
Speed (kts.): 10
Propulsion (HP): 400
Machinery: Diesel, 1 screw
...
APc-2; [contracted: ] 19 Feb 42; [builder: ] Herreshoff Mfg; [keel laid: ] 27 May 42; [launched: ] 8 Aug 42; [commissioned: ] 31 Oct 42; [decommissioned: ] 17 May 46; [struck: ] 5 Jun 46; [disposed: ] 7 Apr 47; [fate: ] Maritime Commission / Delivery; [MA sale: ] 14 Apr 47; [note: ] Ex AMc-165. Sold (delivered) by MC to George Danches, St. Louis, Miss. Merc. DANSCO 1951. ..." (Source: Roberts, Stephen S. "Class: APC-1." Compiled October 26, 2008. http://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux/APC/APC01.html, retrieved October 25, 2011.)

"APc-2. Built in 1942 by the Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, Rhode Island.
Commissioned on October 31, 1942. Engaged formations of enemy aircraft in a bombing and strafing attack at Arawe, New Britain, on December 21, 1943, under Lt. (jg) Porter L. Fortune, Jr., USNR. Three aircraft were destroyed but the boat suffered some damage from a near miss. Decommissioned on May 16, 1946, at San Diego.
Registered in 1951 by George Danches, 5100 Whitsett Ave., Studio City, California, as the 185-ton fishing boat Dansco, homeported at Los Angeles. George and Ralph Danches owned a nightclub at 5100 Whitsctt Ave. In 1956 George moved to 1110 Venetian Way, Miami Beach, Florida, while the boat stayed in Los Angeles still in his name.
During the war, George and Ralph were in business in St. Louis, Missouri, with their brother Abe as Danches Bros, selling dehydrated eggs to the Dept. of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation. They subsequently joined forces with John K. Teaford and formed Teaford, Danches & Co., became embroiled in banking and tax problems, and after the war George formed Danches Productions to finance Ewing Scott's movie 'Untamed Fury' and ended up suing the distributors for breach of contract. The boat went out of documentation in 1967.
ON 261830." (Source: Williams, Greg H. World War II Vessels in Private Hands. Jefferson, NC, 2013, p. 12-13.)

"Twenty-two of these 'jacks of all trades' were built between October 1942 and July 1943 --- with an average of nearly one of these 103-footers each week. Each cost $145,750, and they appear to have been contracted for in two batches, with the lead ship [#425p] of the class (APc 1) included in the first batch of ten; APc 85 [#500p] through APc 96 [#511p] constituted the second batch. It was an impressive rate of production, especially so because the APcs were built concurrently with eight 71-foot British Vosper torpedo boats, which were built in the South Construction Shop." (Source: Bray, Maynard and Carlton Pinheiro. Herreshoff of Bristol. Brooklin, Maine, 1989, p. 226-227.)

"[Item Transcription:] Handwritten 'Estimate of Power required for Hull No. 426 [#426p APc2]
Navy Contract No. 55695' [extrapolating from data for #410p SHEERNESS]." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.009. Estimate. Box HAFH.6.1B, Folder Hull No. 426p. 1940-08-20.)
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"[Item Transcription:] Penciled displacement calculations titled 'Hull No. 426 [#426p APc2 ]
Navy Contract No. 55659'. 'Disp = (2 x (4/4)^2 x 57.72 x (59.25/12)) = 1010 cu.ft. = 64700 lbs'." (Source: MIT Museum, Hart Nautical Collections, Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection Item HH.6.009. Calculations. Box HAFH.6.1B, Folder Hull No. 426p. No date (ca1942).)
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Note: This list of archival documents contains in an unedited form any and all which mention #426p APc2 even if just in a cursory way. Permission to digitize, transcribe and display is gratefully acknowledged.

Year: 1942
E/P/S: P
No.: 426p
Name: APc2
OA: 103' 2 1/2"
LW: 98' 1 1/2"

Source: Vermilya, Peter and Maynard Bray. "Transcription of the HMCo. Construction Record." Unpublished database, ca. 2000.

Note: The transcription of the HMCo Construction Record by Peter Vermilya and Maynard Bray was performed independently (and earlier) than that by Claas van der Linde. A comparison of the two transcriptions can be particularly useful in those many cases where the handwriting in the Construction Record is difficult to decipher.

"The design of the APc Coastal Transport Class was based on that of the Eldredge McInnis-designed 93ft AMc Minesweeper, lengthened by a 6ft plug. [Information based on a plaque at the Herreshoff Marine Museum.]" (Source: van der Linde, Claas. December 14, 2008.)

"[See also:] Displacement calculations - Estimate of power required (8/20/1940). In: Technical and Business Records pertaining to the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, Series VI, Folder HH.6.9 (Hull No. 426), Box HAFH.6.1B." (Source: Hasselbalch, Kurt and Frances Overcash and Angela Reddin: Guide to The Haffenreffer-Herreshoff Collection. Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 1997, p. 63-79.)

"Built in 170 days (contract to launch; equivalent to $853/day, 1318 lbs displacement/day)." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. January 16, 2024.)

"[Displacement 100 long tons.]" (Source: http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/23/23009.htm, retrieved March 29, 2011.)

"There is conflicting information regarding the fate of this vessel. It may have been bombed and sunk in 1943 or it may have been sold out of government service in 1951." (Source: van der Linde, Claas. October 25, 2011.)

Note: Research notes contain information about a vessel that is often random and unedited but has been deemed useful for future research.