Beaumont

A warship, the steel-hulled yacht Reveler was completed in 1930 at Kiel, Germany, by Krupp Iron Works; she was renamed Chalena and, later, Carola. Acquired by the Navy on 23 January 1942 from Leon Mandel, Carola was renamed Beaumont on 27 January 1942, classified as a gunboat and designated PG-60. Converted to naval service by the Gibbs Gas Engine Co., Jacksonville, Fla.; she was commissioned on 22 June 1942, Lt. Comdr. John M. Cox, Jr., USNR, in command.

After fitting out, Beaumont proceeded to Miami, Fla., arriving on 22 July to begin her shakedown. Upon the conclusion of that period of training, she got underway for Key West on the 29th, arriving there the following day. With orders to escort motor vessels to Caribbean ports via the Yucatán Channel, and then proceed to the Canal Zone and report to Commander, Panama Sea Frontier, for further routing, Beaumont sailed on 2 August. Parting company with her charges soon thereafter having seen them safely to that point on 5 August, she proceeded on to Panama, reaching her destination on 8 August.

After transiting the Panama Canal, Beaumont stood out of Balboa harbor on 16 August, bound for Oahu, T.H.. Assigned to the Hawaiian Sea Frontier, the gunboat reached her new base, Pearl Harbor, on 2 September. For the next three years, Beaumont operated from Pearl on weather station duty, alternating, sometimes with gunboat San Bernardino (PG-59), on stations designated only by the letters “B”, “C”, and “D,” operating between Midway and her home port, collecting meteorological data in support of the Pacific Fleet’s weather service. The cessation of hostilities found her still supplying information to the weather forecasters, and she remained through the autumn of 1945. Ultimately, she sailed from Pearl Harbor on 5 November 1945, and reached San Francisco on Armistice Day, 11 November 1945, having been directed to report to Commander, Western Sea Frontier, and then Commandant, 12th Naval District, for disposal. She was decommissioned at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 19 February 1946.

Designated on 12 March 1946 “to be disposed of,” Beaumont was struck from the Navy list on 28 March 1946, and ultimately delivered to the Maritime Commission’s War Shipping Administration on 20 February 1947.^[1]

Beaumont is also a major city in Texas.

References[edit]

1. ↑ Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships