Yacona (AOG-45)
1945-1946
A misspelling of Yocona, a river in the state of Mississippi that flows westward from Pontotoc and Lafayette Counties to join the Tallahatchie River in Quitman County.
II
(AOG-45: displacement 2,300; length 221'0"; beam 37'0"; depth of hold 15'0"; speed 15.0 knots; complement 58; armament 1 3-inch, 6 20 millimeter; class Mettawee; type T1-M-A2)
The second Yacona (AOG-45) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (M. C. Hull 2071) on 23 November 1944 at Bayonne, N.J., by the East Coast Shipyard, Inc.; launched on 14 January 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Amy Gilhardt; and commissioned on 7 February 1945, Lt. Richard A. Urquhart, USNR, in command.
Following shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, Yacona sailed for Miami, Fla., on 19 April 1945. On the 25th, she departed for temporary duty at the Naval Training Station at Miami and operated out of there on training duties into the fall of 1945. A three-day port visit to Havana, Cuba, from 31 July to 3 August, punctuated her duty in Florida's coastal waters. Yacona departed Miami on 4 November, bound for Hampton Roads; and was decommissioned at Norfolk on 20 December 1945. Stricken from the Navy Register on 8 January 1946, the gasoline tanker was delivered to the War Shipping Administration, Maritime Commission, on 25 July 1946.
Acquired by the Gulf Oil Co., of Philadelphia, Pa., in 1947, Yacona served that petroleum concern until late in 1976, when she was purchased by the Sociedad Campania de Navegacion Dormar, Ltd. She served under the Colombian flag, homeported at Isla de San Andres, Colombia, carrying oil to vessels in Colombia's lakes, bays, and sounds.
