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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

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  • World War II 1939-1945
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YP-636

1945-1946

(YP-636: displacement 700 (full load); length 128'0"; beam 29'0"; draft 14'0"; speed 12 knots; complement 19; armament 4 20 millimeter)

The wooden-hulled district patrol vessel YP-636 was laid down on 10 July 1944 at Seattle, Wash., by the Ballard Marine Railway Co.; launched on 27 January 1945; delivered on 14 June 1945 and placed in commission at the U.S. Naval Station, Seattle, the same day, Lt. (j.g.) Samuel Weissman, D-V(S), USNR, in command.

Reporting for shakedown on 27 June 1945, YP-636 lacked air compressor spare parts, so Commander, Operational Training Command, Pacific, on 6 July, desired that the ship be held on the west coast until such could be received. Commander, Service Force, Pacific (ComServPac), under whom the ship would operate (she had been slated for assignment to Service Squadron Eight) approved, on 14 July, YP-636 being held on the west coast for the arrival of mechanical spares, after which time she would sail for Pearl Harbor. Electrical spare parts would follow by air. Commander, Western Sea Frontier, however, reported on 2 August that the Bureau of Ships had stated that “mechanical spares would have to be manufactured and will not be ready for shipment for 4 or 5 weeks.” On 6 August, ComServPac directed that the ship be held on the west coast for both mechanical and electrical spares.

Following an operational career that had seen her range as far as Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, in the spring of 1946 under Lt. (j.g.) T. H. Risch, USNR YP-636 ultimately foundered and sank near Half Moon Bay, Calif., on 5 September 1946 in heavy fog.  She was stricken from the Naval Register on 25 September 1946.

Robert J. Cressman

Updated, 22 March 2022

Published: Tue Mar 22 22:10:36 EDT 2022