PC-461 Class Submarine Chaser:
Laid down, 29 March 1943 at Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Co., Sturgeon Bay, Wisc.
Launched, 5 June 1943
Commissioned USS PC-1172, 6 October 1943
Decommissioned in February 1955 at San Diego, CA
Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Columbia River Group
Named Olney 15 February 1956
Struck from the Navy Register 1 July 1960
Sold 20 May 1961 to Hatch and Kirk Inc. of Astoria, Oregon
They removed the General Motors 16-278A engines, overhauled and sold the engines along with the gears, shafts and propellers to the Luzon Stevedores of Manila, Philippines for new construction tugs. The hull was towed up to
Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island across from Seattle, WA. Around 1969 the hull was cut down to a kind of landing barge configuration with a bow ramp. Bobtailed, it was re-powered with a pair of Navy surplus Murray &
Tregurtha "Z" drives powered with 6-71 Detroit Diesels. The hull became the 120 foot M/V Gleaner. She worked in the high Arctic for 3 years chartered to the Western Geophysical, Inc. for seismic work at Prudhoe Bay
during the Alaskan pipe line job. Around 1975 she wintered in a lagoon behind Kotzebue, Alaska. The following spring she was towed to Seward, Alaska and sold to the Peninsula Packing Company. They made her into a clam
digger which ended up a total failure. She then did seismic work in the Cook Inlet and finally ended up on the beach across from Seward, Alaska in Resurrection Bay. Her new owner installed a pair of 8V71 Detroit Diesels with
3:1 reduction gear ratio, conventional shafts and propellers. He built two keels under the hull for new rudders and was replating the bottom . His plan was to load her up with all his worldly goods and head south for Costa Rica.
Fate unknown.
Specifications:
Displacement 280 t.(lt) , 450 t.(fl)
Length 173' 8"
Beam 23'
Draft 10' 10"
Speed 20.2 kts.
Complement 65
Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, one single 40mm gun mount; three 20mm guns, two rocket launchers, four depth charge projectiles, two depth charge tracks
Propulsion: Two 2,880bhp General Motors 16-278A diesel engines (Serial No. 14247 and 14278), Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts.
