Amber (PYc-6)
1941-1944
A hard, translucent fossil resin which is normally yellowish to brownish in color. Since it can be highly polished, amber is used as a gem.
(PYc-6: displacement 260; length 120'; beam 21'5"; draft 10'6"; speed 12.5 knots; armament 1 3-inch, 2 depth charge tracks)
Polaris -- a yacht built in 1930 at Seattle, Wash., by the Lake Union Dry Dock Co. -- was purchased by the Navy from Edward and Kathryn Lowe on 23 December 1940; converted for naval service by the Winslow Marine Railway & Shipbuilding Co., Inc., Winslow, Wash.; renamed Amber on 10 January 1941 and simultaneously designated PYc-6; and placed in commission at Seattle on 3 March 1941, Lt. William B. Combs, D-V(G), USNR, in command.
Amber was assigned to the Inshore Patrol of the Thirteenth Naval District and, from May until early August, operated around Seattle, Tacoma, and Port Townsend, Wash. The patrol craft left Seattle on 6 August 1941 on a cruise to Alaska, and visited Ketchikan, Juneau, and Sitka, before returning to Seattle early in September.
In November 1941, the ship was assigned to patrol duty at Astoria, Oreg., and patrolled the Strait of Juan de Fuca off Neah Bay, Wash., under the control of the Northwest Sea Frontier Patrol Group.
Amber was decommissioned on 18 October 1944, and her name was stricken from the Naval Register on 13 November 1944. The ship was sold back to her former owners on 13 June 1945.
