Pequot, 1922 (WARC-58)

March 6, 2021
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Pequot, 1922

WARC-58
ex-General Samuel M. Mills


An Indian tribe resident in Southern Connecticut, members of the Algonquian language grouping.


TYPE/RIG/CLASS: 166-foot Cable-Laying Ship

BUILDER: New York Shipbuilding Corporation

COMMISSIONED: 1 May 1922 (first USCG assignment); 1 January 1946 (Second USCG assignment)

DECOMMISSIONED: Transferred to USN 1 November 1941; decommissioned 8 December 1946; sold 5 September 1947.

DISPLACEMENT: 960

PROPULSION: 2 compound expansion steam, 2 cylinder with 2 Foster-Wheeler boilers

PERFORMANCE: 12 knots maximum; 10 knots, 1,250 nautical miles cruising;

LENGTH: 166-feet

BEAM: 32-feet

DRAFT: 11-feet, 4-inches

COMPLEMENT: 5 officers, 48 men (1938)

ARMAMENT:
          1938: None
          1945: Two 20mm/80 (single)


History:

The Pequot was built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation as a mine planter for the U.S. Army.  She was laid down in 1908, launched on 13 February 1909 and named the General Samuel M. Mills.  The Coast Guard acquired her on 29 April 1922 and renamed her Pequot on 1 May 1922.  She was assigned permanent operations as a cable ship out of Boston, Massachusetts, where she remained through the outbreak of World War II.  When Executive Order 8929 of 1 November 1941 transferred the Coast Guard to the Navy, Pequot was assigned to Coast Guard Headquarters and was stationed at New London, Connecticut, and was used to lay and repair cables to remote stations.

She was reassigned to Norfolk, Virginia before the end of hostilities, and she officially returned to the Coast Guard 1 January 1946.  Pequot decommissioned 5 December 1946 and was sold for scrap 5 September 1947 to Potomac Shipwrecking Co., Inc. of Popes Creek, Maryland.


Sources:

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.  Washington, DC: USGPO.

Donald Canney.  U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935.  Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.

U.S. Coast Guard.  Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933.  Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).