Lapeer (PC-1138)
1956-1959
The county seat of Lapeer County in eastern Michigan.
The PC-461-class submarine chaser PC-1138 performed escort missions in the Caribbean and Pacific Theaters of War, and was decommissioned on 13 September 1946. While berthed in reserve in the Columbia River Group, PC-1138 [q.v.] was named Lapeer on 1 February 1956, but never served actively under that name.
Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 April 1959, Lapeer was subsequently sold and, over the ensuing years, underwent modifications that fitted out the vessel for the work envisioned by a succession of owners: Ken Hinche had the submarine chaser converted to an icebreaker, and, giving her the name Knit Bay, employed her in Alaskan climes. Dave Updyke converted the vessel to a tug while, subsequently, Belco Petroleum of Houston, Texas, renamed the former warship Mister B, and utilized her in work in Peruvian oil fields.
Ultimately, Mister B. became Dueñas (ARB-126) after the Peruvian Navy acquired her in 1984 and placed her in commission on 5 June 1985. She served as a tugboat until inactivated in 2014 and decommissioned the following year (2015); she apparently has been earmarked to be broken up for a scrap.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
3 October 2023
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