Alturas-PC-603

Alturas

A city in the northeastern corner of California. It is the seat of government of Modoc County.

(PC-602: dp. 280 1. 173'8", b. 23'0", dr. 10'10"' s. 20.2 k. (tl.) cpl. 65; a. 13", 2 20mm., 2 dep., 2 act.; cf. PC-461)

PC-602 was laid down on 12 April 1942 at Morris Heights N.Y., by the Consolidated Shipbuilding Corp., launched on 13 June 1942; sponsored by Mrs. W. J. Bolen, and commissioned on 16 September 1942, Lt. Comdr. Thomas A. Graham, USNR, in command.

Following shakedown training, the submarine chaser began escorting convoys between New York and Guantanamo Bay Cuba. After three such missions, she transited the Panama Canal late in December 1942. From January to November of 1943 PC - 02 operated along the California coast as a unit of the forces assigned to the Western Sea Frontier. Early in November, she sailed west to Hawaii and, on the 14th, reported for duty with the Hawaiian Sea Frontier. Except for one round-trip voyage to Funafuti in the Ellice Islands in December of 1943, PC - 02 spent the remainder of World War II operating as a part of the defenses of the Hawaiian Islands.

Following the end of the war in September of 1945, she continued her service in Hawaii. In March of 1946, she returned to the west coast for inactivation. Listed as inactive since March 1946 on the Naval Vessel Register dated 25 July 1946, PC-602 was out of commission, in reserve, by the following January. Berthed at Astoria, Oreg., she remained in reserve for almost a decade and a half. In February 1956, PC-602 was named Alturas. A little over four years later in July 1960, her name was struck from the Navy list. She was sold in April 1961.