USS Wachapreague (AGP-8)

USS Wachapreague (AGP-8)
USS Wachapreague (AGP-8) on 20 May 1944, three days after commissioning
Career (United States)
Name:	USS Wachapreague
Namesake:	The Wachapreague Channel, an inlet on the eastern shore of Virginia
Builder:	Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, Washington
Laid down:	1 February 1943
Launched:	10 July 1943
Sponsored by:	Mrs. E. L. Barr
Commissioned:	17 May 1944
Decommissioned:	10 May 1946
Reclassified:	From seaplane tender AVP-56 to motor torpedo boat tender AGP-8 on 2 February 1943
Struck:	5 June 1946
Honors and awards:	Four battle stars for her World War II service
Fate:	Transferred to United States Coast Guard 27 May 1946
Notes:	Served as U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC McCulloch (WAVP-386), later WHEC-386, 1946-1972 Served as South Vietnamese Navy patrol vessel RVNS Ngo Quyen (HQ-17) 1972-1975 Served as Philippine Navy patrol vessel BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-8) 1976-1985
General characteristics
Class & type:	Barnegat-class seaplane tender, converted during construction into a motor torpedo boat tender
Displacement:	1,766 tons (light) 2,592 tons (full load)
Length:	310 ft 9 in (94.72 m)
Beam:	41 ft 1 in (12.52 m)
Draft:	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Installed power:	6,000 horsepower (4.48 megawatts)
Propulsion:	Diesel engines, two shafts
Speed:	18.2 knots
Complement:	246
Sensors and processing systems:	Radar; sonar
Armament:	2 x 5-inch (127-millimeter) gun 8 x 40-millimeter anti-aircraft guns 8 x 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns 2 x depth charge tracks

USS Wachapreague (AGP-8) was a motor torpedo boat tender that served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946.

Construction and deployment

Wachapreague (AVP-56) was laid down as a Barnegat-class seaplane tender on 1 February 1943 at Houghton Washington, by the Lake Washington Shipyard. She was reclassified as a motor torpedo boat tender and redesignated AGP-8 on 2 February 1943. She was launched on 10 July 1943, sponsored by Mrs. E. L. Barr, and commissioned on 17 May 1944, Lieutenant Commander Harold A. Stewart, USNR, in command.

Following her shakedown training out of San Diego, California, Wachapreague got underway on 18 July 1944 for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, en route to the South Pacific. Soon thereafter, she stopped briefly at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, and called at Brisbane, Australia, on 17 August 1944, before reaching her ultimate destination, Milne Bay, New Guinea, on 20 August 1944.

Wachapreague dropped anchor at Motor Torpedo Boat Base 21, at that time the largest patrol torpedo boat (PT boat) operating base in the Pacific. She reported to Commander, Motor Torpedo Boats, 7th Fleet, and commenced tending the 10 PT boats from Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron (MTBRon) 12. This unit had previously taken a heavy toll of Japanese barge traffic and had wreaked much havoc upon Japanese shore installations, in almost nightly actions, during the New Guinea campaign. As Allied forces wrapped up the New Guinea operations, Wachapreague received an additional five PT boats from Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 7 (MTBRon 7) as the Navy prepared for operations to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation.

The Philippines campaign

The Leyte campaign begins

USS Wachapreague (AGP-8) refuels a PT boat on 20 October 1944 during the voyage from Palau to Leyte.

On 13 October 1944, Wachapreague sailed in company with motor torpedo boat tenders USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6) and USS Willoughby (AGP-9), seaplane tender USS Half Moon (AVP-26), and two United States Army craft for Leyte, 1,200 nautical miles (2,222 kilometers) away. The 45 torpedo boats were convoyed by the larger ships, refuelled while underway at sea, and successfully completed the voyage under their own power. Slowing to 9 knots, Wachapreague fueled two torpedo boats simultaneously, one alongside to starboard and one astern, eventually replenishing the fuel supply of all 15 of her brood. A brief two-day respite at Kossol Roads, Palau, for repairs and a further refueling of the PT boats, preceded the final leg of the voyage.

While Wachapreague dropped anchor at northern San Pedro Bay off Leyte, her PT boats, fresh and ready for action immediately, entered Leyte Gulf on 21 October 1944, the day after the initial landings on Leyte. On 24 October 1944, Wachapreague shifted to Liloan Bay, a small anchorage off Panoan Island, 65 nautical miles (120 kilometers) south of San Pedro Bay, which scarcely afforded the ship room to swing with the tide. Soon after her arrival at Liloan Bay, Wachapreague contacted the Philippine guerrilla radio network for a mutual exchange of information as to Japanese forces in the area.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf

On the afternoon of 24 October 1944, upon receipt of word that three powerful Japanese task forces were approaching from three directions, PT boats tended by Wachapreague sped to action stations. In the van of the southern Japanese force steamed two battleships and a heavy cruiser, screened by four destroyers; 30 nautical miles (56 kilometers) behind came the second group, consisting of three cruisers and four destroyers. The American PT boats met the Japanese southern force head-on; three coordinated destroyer torpedo attacks soon followed; while American battleships and cruisers under Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf deployed across the northern end of Surigao Strait to "cross the T." The devastation the American warships wreaked upon the Japanese force was nearly total. Only one Japanese ship—destroyer Shigure emerged from what became known as the Battle of Surigao Strait.

PT boats from MTBRon 12 then threw the second task group off balance at the head of the strait, slamming a torpedo into the side of light cruiser Abukuma and forcing Abukuma out of the battle line, badly damaged. The Japanese flagship, heavy cruiser Nachi, collided with another ship in the melee and found her own speed reduced to 18 knots. This second echelon of Japanese ships, correctly surmising that the first had fallen upon some hard times, then fled, hotly pursued by American planes which administered the coup de grace to sink the already crippled Abukuma and destroyer Shiranuhi on 26 October 1944.

MTBron 12's actions and the Battle of Surigao Strait itself were part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf of 23 October to 26 October 1944, a decisive defeat to the Imperial Japanese Navy from which it never recovered. Yet, while the Japanese capacity for seaborne operations lessened, they nevertheless could still strike back from the skies. While the crew of Wachapreague labored to repair the badly damaged torpedo boat USS PT-194 on 25 October 1944, a Japanese plane attacked the ship, only to be driven off by a heavy anti-aircraft barrage. Later that day, Wachapreague shifted to Hinunagan Bay for refuelling operations that would enable her six PT boats to return to San Pedro Bay. Japanese nuisance attacks from the air continued, however, and a dive bomber attacked Wachapreague just as she was completing fueling operations with USS PT-134. As the PT-134 pulled away from Wachapreague's side, a Japanese bomb landed some 18 feet (5.5 meters) from the PT boat's stern, killing one man and wounding four on board PT-134. Moving out under cover of a smoke screen, Wachapreague vacated her anchorage just before 14 Japanese planes struck and, while clearing the bay, fired on three twin-motored Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers, claiming two kills as one "Betty" crashed into the sea and a second, trailing smoke, crashed behind a nearby island.

The Leyte Campaign concludes

Wachapreague arrived at San Pedro Bay late on 26 October 1944 and conducted tending operations at that site until 13 November 1944. During this time, her PT boats operated with devastating effect against Japanese shipping in the Ormoc Bay and Mindanao Sea areas. On 13 November 1944, her task completed in those waters for the time being, Wachapreague sailed in company with Willoughby for Mios Woendi. Returning two weeks later, Wachapreague now tended a total of 22 PT boat -- from Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons (MTBRons) 13, 16, and 28 -— as well as six more from Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron (MTBRon) 36 and two from Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron (MTBRon) 17, at San Pedro Bay. Wachapreague remained at San Pedro until 4 January 1945, when she headed for Lingayen, on Luzon, in company with MTBRons 28 and 36.

The Luzon campaign

At noon on the day of departure, 4 January 1945, a Japanese suicide aircraft dived into a merchant ship 100 yards (91 meters) ahead. At dusk, seven Japanese planes attacked; one of them crashed in the sea some 100 yards ahead of Wachapreague, another came under fire as it plunged toward the merchant ship SS Kyle V. Johnson, and a third headed for Wachapreague, only to be knocked into the sea by a heavy antiaircraft barrage. Later that evening, USS PT-382 came alongside Wachapreague and transferred two men they had rescued from the water who had been blown overboard from Kyle V. Johnson during the earlier heavy air action.

Wachapreague entered Lingayen Gulf on 13 January 1945 and anchored near the town of Damortis. On 16 January 1945, she shifted her anchorage to Port Sual to tend PT boats from MTBRons 28 and 36. These boats gradually extended their patrols northward to the coastal towns of Vigan City and Aparri, wreaking havoc on Japanese barge traffic and shipping along the northwest coast of Luzon, shelling shore installations and destroying some 20 barges. Wachapreague meanwhile continued to make all electrical and engine repairs for the squadron PT boats and handled all major communications for the motor torpedo boat squadrons until she departed Lingayen on 12 March 1945 to replenish at Leyte.

The Borneo campaign

Underway again on 23 April 1945, Wachapreague accompanied MTBRon 36 to Dutch North Borneo and took part in the invasion of Tarakan Island. While the guns still pounded the shore and the invasion itself was underway, Wachapreague entered the Tarakan Bay on 1 May 1945 to establish an advance base for her PT boats. For the next four months, until the end of World War II in August 1945, Wachapreague operated from this bay, tending MTBRon 36 PT boats while they in turn conducted daily offensive runs up the coast of Borneo.

In the course of these operations, the PT boats sought out and destroyed Japanese shipping at Tawao, Cowie Harbor, Noneokan, Dutch North Borneo, shelling and rocketing shore installations. As the Japanese later attempted evacuation by small boats and rafts, the PT boats netted some 30 prisoners. In addition to these tasks, the PT boats assisted landing ship tank (LST) retractions from the beachheads by speeding across the water astern of the landing ships and creating swells which enabled the LST's to back off the beach and float free.

Post-World War II Navy career

Wachapreague tended PT's after the end of the war, basing at Tarakan, until she headed home and arrived at San Francisco, California, on 5 December 1945. After upkeep at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Wachapreague got underway for the East Coast of the United States on 20 March 1946 and reported at Boston, Massachusetts, on 6 April 1946 for inactivation. She was decommissioned on 10 May 1946 and transferred outright to the United States Coast Guard on 27 May 1946. Her name was struck from the Navy List on 5 June 1946.

Wachapreague received four battle stars for her World War II service.

United States Coast Guard career

Main article: USCGC McCulloch (WAVP-386)

Coast Guard cutter USCGC McCulloch (WAVP-386), the former USS Wachapreague, in the Atlantic sometime between May 1946 and the Coast Guard's 1967 adoption of the "racing stripe" markings on its ships.

In Coast Guard service, Wachapreague was renamed USCGC McCulloch in honor of the financier Hugh McCulloch (1808-1895) who served as Secretary of the Treasury for Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Chester A. Arthur, reclassified as a Coast Guard seaplane tender, and designated WAVP-386. McCulloch initially operated out of Boston, and later into the 1970s out of Wilmington, North Carolina, patrolling ocean stations in the North Atlantic Ocean. Spending an average of 21 days per month at sea, McCulloch patrolled the direct line of air routes to Europe, relayed weather data to the United States Weather Bureau, maintained an air-sea rescue station for overseas civilian and military flights, and engaged in law-enforcement activities. Reclassified as a High Endurance Cutter and redesignated WHEC-386 in 1966, McCulloch remained engaged in these duties until more modern techniques of weather reporting and data gathering came into use and thus made the seagoing weather ships obsolete.

Career in foreign navies

Republic of Vietnam Navy service 1972-1975

Main article: RVNS Ngo Quyen (HQ-17)

McCulloch was transferred to South Vietnam in June 1972, one of seven former Barnegat-class ships transferred by the Coast Guard to the South Vietnamese Navy in 1971 and 1972. In South Vietnamese service she was renamed RVNS Ngo Quyen (HQ-17). She served as one of South Vietnam's largest and most heavily armed naval units, and served in patrol and coastal interdiction duties during the Vietnam War. In late April 1975, upon the defeat of South Vietnam, Ngo Quyen, heavily laden with refugees, fled to the Philippines. As she and her sisters had become ships without a country, Ngo Quyen was acquired by the Republic of the Philippines in 1975, and the transfer was made formal on 5 April 1976.

Philippine Navy service 1977-1985

Main article: BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-8)

The former Ngo Quyen was commissioned in the Philippine Navy in February 1977 as patrol vessel BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-8) until decommissioned in 1985. She was discarded in April 1990 and probably scrapped.

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Wachapreague (AGP-8, originally AVP-56), 1944-1946
• NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive USS Wachapreague AVP-56 / AGP-8 USCGC McCulloch WAVP-386 / WHEC-386
• McCulloch, 1946 WAVP / WHEC-386
• Chesneau, Roger. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. New York: Mayflower Books, Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.