Taupata (YAG-26)
1942-1944
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acvquisition.
(YAG-26: displacement 200; length 117'7"; beam 26'2"; draft 6'8"; complement 16)
Taupata, built in 1930 by G. T. Niccol at Auckland, New Zealand, was acquired by the U.S. Navy on 10 November 1942 from the government of New Zealand and was placed in commission on 30 December 1942, Cmdr. Watson T. Singer in command.
Taupata -- designated as a district auxiliary vessel (miscellaneous) (YAG-26) -- served as a service craft with the Navy's South Pacific Force until early 1944. Decommissioned at Auckland on 24 April 1944, she was returned to the New Zealand government and was stricken from the Navy Register on 16 May 1944.
The Pearl Kaspar Shipping Co., of Nelson, N.Z., acquired the vessel in 1949, after which she was sold to Coastal Services (Motueka) Ltd., also of Nelson, N.Z., in 1962. Reported damaged by fire, she was laid up and offered for sale three years later (1965); subsequently, she was acquired for use as a "mother ship" for craft engaged in tyhe crayfishing trade in the Seychelle Islands in February 1967. After being refitted, she cleared Lyttleton, N.Z., following repairs and alterations, on 16 May 1967. She was then sold to the Tautapa Fishing Corp. of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in 1971. The versatile vessel subsequently operated as a pleasure craft within a decade, but her ultimate fate is not recorded.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
21 June 2023
