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USS Moberly (PF-63)
Encyclopedia
USS Moberly (PF-63), a , was the only ship of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
to be named for Moberly, Missouri
Moberly, Missouri
Moberly is a city in Randolph County, Missouri, United States. According to the 2008 census bureau estimate, the population was 14,227. The city was incorporated 1868. The Moberly Micropolitan Statistical Area consists of Randolph County....
.
Moberly (PF-63), originally designated as PG-171, was reclassified PF-63 on 15 April 1943; laid down as Scranton under Maritime Commission contract by Globe Shipbuilding Company in Superior, Wisconsin
Superior, Wisconsin
Superior is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 26,960 at the 2010 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Highways 2 and 53, it is north of and adjacent to both the Village of Superior and the Town of Superior.Superior is at the western...
, on 3 November 1943; launched on 26 January 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Howard J. Snowden; renamed Moberly on 28 June 1944; placed "in service" from 1 to 7 September during transfer to Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, for completion of construction by Brown Shipbuilding
Brown Shipbuilding
The Brown Shipbuilding Company was founded in Houston, Texas in 1942 as a subsidiary of Brown and Root by brothers Herman and George R. Brown to build ships for the US Navy during World War II....
; and commissioned at Houston on 11 December 1944, with Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
Leslie B. Tollaksen, USCG, in command.
Service history
After shakedownShakedown (testing)
A shakedown is a period of testing or a trial journey undergone by a ship, aircraft or other craft and its crew before being declared operational. Statistically, a proportion of the components will fail after a relatively short period of use, and those that survive this period can be expected to...
off Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, Moberly reported to the Atlantic Fleet on 8 February 1945 for escort duty. Assigned to TG 60.1, she departed Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, 22 February in the screen of North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
n bound convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
UGS-76. She reached Oran, Algeria, 10 March, thence sailed on the 18th with westbound convoy GUS-76. Transferred to TG-60.7 on 29 March, she joined the eastbound convoy UGS-82 in the mid-Atlantic and returned to Oran on 8 April. Once again, the frigate sailed for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on 17 April. The escorts left the convoy off New York about noon on 5 May and headed for Boston, Massachusetts.
In company with and , Moberly approached Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay is a bay along the southern edge of Massachusetts in the United States. The name may also refer to:*Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, a village in Bourne, Massachusetts*Buzzards Bay , the name of the horse that won the 2005 Santa Anita Derby...
late that afternoon, only two days before Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
surrendered. At 1854, on orders from CTG 60.7 in , then at the southern entrance to the Cape Cod Canal
Cape Cod Canal
The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway traversing the narrow neck of land that joins Cape Cod to mainland Massachusetts.Part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the canal is roughly 17.4 miles long and connects Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south...
, the ships turned about to search for a German submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
off Block Island
Block Island
Block Island is part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately south of the coast of Rhode Island, east of Montauk Point on Long Island, and is separated from the Rhode Island mainland by Block Island Sound. The United States Census Bureau defines Block...
. At 1740, had torpedo
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
ed and sunk Black Point within sight of Point Judith, Rhode Island, as the American collier
Collier (ship type)
Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...
headed for Boston.
Submarine snorkel
A submarine snorkel is a device which allows a submarine to operate submerged while still taking in air from above the surface. Navy personnel often refer to it as the snort.-History:...
submarine, bottomed in a depth of 18 fathom
Fathom
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in an imperial or U.S. fathom...
s. The destroyer escort
Destroyer escort
A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...
dropped magnetic depth charge
Depth charge
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare weapon intended to destroy or cripple a target submarine by the shock of exploding near it. Most use explosives and a fuze set to go off at a preselected depth in the ocean. Depth charges can be dropped by either surface ships, patrol aircraft, or from...
s at 2028, and during the next 30 minutes fired two full spreads of hedgehog
Hedgehog (weapon)
The Hedgehog was an anti-submarine weapon developed by the Royal Navy during World War II, that was deployed on convoy escort warships such as destroyers to supplement the depth charge. The weapon worked by firing a number of small spigot mortar bombs from spiked fittings...
s.
Working as an effective hunter-killer group, Atherton and Moberly continued the search and destroy operations. At 2341 the escort launched hedgehogs which brought large amounts of oil, air bubbles, and debris
Debris
Debris is rubble, wreckage, ruins, litter and discarded garbage/refuse/trash, scattered remains of something destroyed, or, in geology, large rock fragments left by a melting glacier etc. The singular form of debris is debris...
to the surface. The two ships delivered four more attacks in the early hours of 6 May, and by dawn oil and flotsam littered the ocean. The ships recovered such conclusive evidence as plank
Plank
Plank may refer to:*Plank *Plank , an isometric exercise for the abdominal muscles*The Plank , a British comedy film with no dialogue*The Plank , a remake of the 1967 film...
ing, life rafts, a chart
Chart
A chart is a graphical representation of data, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart"...
tabletop
Tabletop
Tabletop can refer to:* Table Tops, a free newspaper for Australian Army troops in World War II* Table Top Mountain * Tabletop, New South Wales* Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa* Tepui, flat top mountains in South America...
, clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
, and an officer's cap
Cap
A cap is a form of headgear. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head and have no brim or only a visor. They are typically designed for warmth and, when including a visor, blocking sunlight from the eyes...
, which indicated the accuracy and severity of the earlier attacks. To be certain however, they pounded the lifeless U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
throughout the morning; then at 1240, TG 60.7 headed for Boston with "brooms at mastheads
Clean sweep (naval)
A "clean sweep" for a naval vessel refers to having "swept the enemy from the seas," a completely successful mission. It is traditionally indicated byhanging a broom from a mast or lashing it to the periscope of a submarine.-History:...
."
Moberly operated between Boston and New York until 31 July when she sailed with three other frigates for the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
on 8 August and reached Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
on the 23rd. Six days later Moberly and sailed for the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
to begin weather station and plane guard patrols. The frigates reached Majuro on 5 September, and during the next six months they alternated on patrolling their assigned area out of Majuro and later out of Kwajalein
Kwajalein
Kwajalein Atoll , is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands . The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island. English-speaking residents of the U.S...
.
Moberly returned to the west coast early in April 1946 and subsequently served in the 13th Naval District. She decommissioned on 12 August 1946. Authorized by the Secretary of the Navy for disposal on 29 August, Moberly was struck from the Navy list
Navy List
A Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a country....
on 23 April 1947. She was sold for scrapping to Franklin Shipwrecking Company of Hillside, New Jersey
Hillside, New Jersey
Hillside is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 21,404.Hillside was incorporated as a township on April 3, 1913, from portions of Union Township, based on the results of a referendum held on April 29, 1913.The town...
, on 27 October 1947.
Moberly received one battle star for World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
service.