Might; USS; PG-94
Great power, force, strength, vigor or authority.
Builder: Morton Engineering and Drydock Co., Ltd. Quebec, Canada
Length: 208'
Beam: 33'
Draft: 14' 7"
Displacement: 925 tons
Commissioned: 22 December 1942
Decommissioned: 9 October 1943
Disposition: Transferred to the Maritime Commission
Speed:
Maximum: 17 knots
Cruising: 12 knots
Range: 7,300 nautical miles at 12 knots
Complement: 87
Armament: 2 x 3"/50; 4 x 20mm; 3 x .30 caliber Browning machine guns; 2 depth charge tracks--20 depth charges per rack; 4 depth charge "K-gun" projectors; 1 x hedgehog added 1943(?)
History:
Might (PG-94) was laid down as Canadian corvette CN--312 by Morton Engineering and Drydock Co., Ltd.. Quebec, Canada. She was launched as HMCS Musk 15 July 1942 and was then transferred to the U.S. Navy 20 July 1942. She was then renamed Might 14 August 1942 and commissioned at Quebec 22 December 1942 under the command of LCDR J. K. Hartley. After fitting out and shakedown from Boston, Might reported to the eastern sea frontier 10 March 1943 at New York for convoy escort duty. Sailing primarily to Cuba and occasionally to Key West, she continued this duty after transferring to the Coast Guard 27 June under the command of LCDR. J. P. Martin, USCG.
During the next 18 months, Might completed 21 voyages to Cuba and two to Key West. The protection she provided made it possible for this vital coastwise and Caribbean traffic to continue despite German submarine menace and freed larger destroyer types for the hunter-killer operations which defeated the U-boats in the Atlantic, In November 1944, and continuously from 9 January to 1 May 1943, Might served weeklong barrier patrols in the western Atlantic.
After antisubmarine exercises out of her Staten Island base, Might arrived Charleston, S.C., 28 June and decommissioned there 9 October 1943. Her name was struck from the Navy list 24 October 1945. and she was delivered to the Maritime Commission 18 October 1946 for immediate transfer to her purchaser, United Boat Service Corp., City Island, N.Y.
From 1950 to 1936 she was owned as Olympic Explorer by Balleneros Ltd., SA., Panama, and sailed as a commercial whale chaser. Then sold to a Japanese shipping company, she was renamed 0tori Maru No. 12, and in 1957 was renamed Kyo Maru No. 12.
Sources:
The Coast Guard at War: Transports and Escorts, V, Volume I (Washington, DC: U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, March 1, 1949), p. 106.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
Cutter File, Historian's Office, Coast Guard Headquarters.