Perseus WPC-114

Perseus

(WPC-114: dp. 337; 1. 165'; b. 25'3"; dr. 9'6"; s. 16 k.; cpl.
50; a. 1 3", 2 20mm)

Perseus, built for the Coast Guard by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Me., was delivered 23 April 1932. She commissioned as a large eruising eutter, was assigned permanent station at Stapleton, Borough of Richmond, N.Y., and eommeneed local patrol and rescue operations. In 1935 the eutter's permanent station shifted to San Diego, Calif.

Executive Order 8929 of 1 November 1941 transferred the entire Coast Guard to the Navy. With the outbreak of hostilities Perseus was temporarily shifted to Cordova, a coastal base in southeastern Alaska. She returned to San Diego 31 December 1941 and served there as a naval coastal patrol and rescue craft until the end of the war.

Executive Order 9666 returned the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department 1 January 1946. Perseus remained active as a patrol craft in the San Diego area until 1959, when she decommissioned and was sold.

(AF-64: dp. 4,960; 1. 455'3"; b. 62', dr. 28'6", 8. 16.5 k.;
cpl. 56; cl. Denebola; T. VC2-S-AP3)

Perseus (AF-64) was laid down as Union Victory (MCV hull 683) by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corp., Portland, Ore., 30 March 1945, Inunehcd 11 May 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Claude F. Palmer; and delivered to the Maritime Commission, 8 June 1945.

Operated on contract from the Maritime Commission, Union Victory carried military cargoes during the last months of World War II in the Pacific; the initial year of the European Occupation; and, four years later, the Korean Confliet. After Korea she returned to commercial transport, then entered the Maritime Administration's National Defense Reserve Fleet. In late 1961 she was transferred to MSTS for conversion to a refrigeration ship. Renamed and designated Perseus (AF-64) 4 December 1961, she was converted by the Willamette Iron and Steel Co., Portland, Ore., and in September 1962 was placed in service as USNS Perseus (T-AF-64) and was manned by a Civil Service crew. Since that time, into 1970, she has operated under ComMSTSPaC and has carried fresh and frozen foods from the west coast to Pacific and Far East ports.