Allied Warships

USS Absecon (AVP 23)

Seaplane tender of the Barnegat class

NavyThe US Navy
TypeSeaplane tender
ClassBarnegat 
PennantAVP 23 
Built byLake Washington Shipyard (Houghton, Washington, U.S.A.) 
Ordered6 Dec 1940 
Laid down23 Jul 1941 
Launched8 Mar 1942 
Commissioned28 Jan 1943 
End service19 Mar 1947 
History

Decommissioned on 19 March 1947
Loaned to the United States Coast Guard on 5 January 1949 and renamed USCGC Absecon (WAVP-374)
Redesignated high endurance cutter WHEC-374 on 1 May 1966
Transferred to South Vietnam on 15 June 1972 being renamed Tham Ngu Lao (HQ-15)
Captured by North Vietnam in May 1975 and renamed Pham Ngu Lao (HQ-01)

 

Commands listed for USS Absecon (AVP 23)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

CommanderFromTo
1T/Cdr. Robert Selden Purvis, Jr., USN28 Jan 194326 Jul 1943 (1)
2Lt.Cdr. John Walter Davison, USN26 Jul 194331 May 1944
3T/Cdr. Peris Graves Bunce, USN31 May 194417 Aug 1945
4T/Lt.Cdr. William Edward Schafer, USN17 Aug 1945

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Notable events involving Absecon include:


13 Mar 1943
USS Absecon picks up 7 survivors from the Honduran merchant Olancho that was torpedoed and sunk on 11 March about 30 nautical miles west of Cape San Antonio, Cuba in position 22°08'N, 85°14'W by German U-boat U-183.


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