Nourmahal, USS
WPG-72; WPG 122
Builder: Friederich Krupp Germaniawerft, A.G., Kiel, Germany
Length: 263' 10"
Beam: 41' 6"
Draft: 18' 5"
Displacement: 3,200
Cost: First acquisition chartered for $1.00. Second acquisition chartered from Navy and the conversion cost $206,363.00. Purchase by Navy for $300,000.00 from owner.
Commissioned: 21 August 1940 (USCG); was transferred to Navy on 16 June 1943 but still Coast Guard-manned; acquired back from Navy 31 December 1943.
Decommissioned: 30 May 1946
Disposition: Returned to owner (?)
Machinery: 2 x Sulzer Brothers 6-cylinder, 2 cycle diesel engines producing 3,200 h.p.
Performance:
Maximum speed/endurance: 13.7 knots with 12,700 mile range
Economic speed/endurance: 8.0 knots with 23,500 mile range
Complement: 98 enlisted, 9 officers (1941); 101 enlisted, 1 warrant, 9 officers (1945)
Electronics:
Detection Radar: None in 1941; SF (1945)
Sonar: None
Armament:
1941: 2 x 4"/50 single mount; 6 x .50 caliber machine guns; 8 x .30 caliber machine guns; 2 x depth charge tracks
1945: 2 x 4"/50 single mount; 6 x 20 mm/80 single mount; 8 x .30 caliber machine guns; 2 x depth charge tracks; 4 x depth charge projectors; 2 x mousetraps.
History:
Nourmahal (PG-72), a yacht built in 1928 by the Krupp Iron Works, Kiel, Germany, was first received from William Vincent Astor on 21 August 1940 for service as a weather station vessel in the Coast Guard Reserve fleet. She was reconditioned at the Coast Guard Yard from 22 September through 1 December 1941 and was then assigned to New York. She departed the Yard and sailed for Norfolk for outfitting and supplies on 1 December 1941 and then relieved USCGC Spencer on Weather Station #2 on 29 December. On 19 January 1942 she sailed for New York. She was then transferred to Navy control under a bareboat charter from William Vincent Astor on 3 March 1942 but still maintained a Coast Guard crew. She was designated Nourmahal (PG-72) 9 April 1943 and purchased by the Navy 29 June in accordance with an option in the original charter agreement.
Nourmahal transferred to the Coast Guard 29 December and was struck from the Navy List 12 January 1944. Until the end of April 1946 she served the Coast Guard based at Boston, Massachusetts, escorting convoys from New York to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and back as well as duty as the flagship of the Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier. After 1 April 1944 she was assigned to U.S. Atlantic Fleet sailed as a weather observation vessel through 1946. Thereafter she provided towing services at the Coast Guard Yard, Curtis Bay, Md.
She returned to the custody of the Commandant of the 5th Naval District in May 1947 for berthing at Norfolk. Transferred to the Maritime Administration 18 July 1948, she was assigned to the James River Maritime Reserve Fleet. She was sold by the Maritime Administration 11 September 1964 to Hughes Brothers, Inc. for scrap.
Sources:
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1981.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. V, p. 117.
Cutter File, Historian's Office, Coast Guard Headquarters.