Affray I (AMc-112)
1941-1946
A general word classification.
I
(AMc-112: displacement 205; 1ength 89'6"; beam 24'4"; draft 10'9"; speed 10.0 knots; complement 17; armament 2 .50-caliber machine guns; class Acme)
The first Affray (AMc-112), a wooden-hulled, coastal minesweeper built in 1941 at Tacoma, Wash., by the Tacoma Boat Building Co., was acquired by the Navy late in 1941 from Haldor Dahl of Tacoma, Wash. and was placed in service on 2 December 1941, Lt. Robert I. Thieme, D-V(G), USNR, in command.
Though she may have performed some duty at Seattle initially, Affray spent the bulk of her active career at Kodiak, Alaska. Her war diary does not begin until 1 July 1942, and, by that time, she was already at Kodiak conducting sweeps for mines and making other patrols on a daily basis. She remained so occupied in those inhospitable climes throughout World War II.
Affray returned to Seattle in mid-October of 1945 and began preparations for inactivation. She was placed out of service on 10 December 1945, and her name was stricken from the Navy Register on 3 January 1946. On 23 March 1946, she was sold back to her former owner.
The vessel changed hands at least four times over the ensuing years as she toiled as a fishing boat. Andrew K. Anderson of Kingston, Wash., purchased Affray in 1947 and renamed her North Queen. Three years later, Andrew Xitco of Tacoma acquired North Queen, retaining her name.
She changed coasts in the early 1960s, North Queen Fishing, Inc., of Dartmouth, Mass., purchasing her in 1963; Atlantic Queen of Port Clyde, Maine, bought her on 1972.
Raymond A. Mann
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
23 August 2022
