Vagrant (PYc-30)
1942-1945
The Navy retained the name carried by this vessel at the time of her acquisition.
(PYc-30: tonnage 238 (U.S. register); length 117'6" (overall), 100'0" (between perpendiculars); beam 25'2" (extreme); draft 10'0"; complement 25; speed 12.0 knots; armament 2 .50-cal. machine guns)
Vagrant, a steel-hulled, single-screw yacht, was laid down on 9 January 1941 at Bath, Maine, by Bath Iron Works; launched on 24 May 1941; and was delivered to her purchaser, Harold S. Vanderbilt, a noted yachtsman, and great-grandson of the railroad and shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, on 13 September 1941. The Navy acquired Vagrant on 23 March 1942 for use as a district patrol craft.
Although initially designated and classified as the unnamed district patrol vessel YP-258, the yacht was designated as a patrol vessel and classified as converted yacht (coastal); she received the official number PYc-30 on 2 April 1942. A subsequent order, dated 8 April 1942, authorized the retention of the name Vagrant. Fitted out at City Island, N.Y., by the Robert Jacob, Inc., yard, Vagrant, her crew received from the Receiving Ship, New York, was commissioned on 9 May 1942, Lt. (j.g.) George T. Elliman, D-V(S), USNR, in command.
Vagrant departed City Island on 21 May 1942 for, ultimately, various “ports in [the] Eastern Sea Frontier.” The following day [22 May] she embarked Cmdr. Vincent Astor, I-V(S), USNR, and Navy Department Special Agent Cris Endresen at Glen Cove, Long Island, and on 28 May, at New Bedford, Mass. embarked Lt. Richard D. Sears, Jr., I-V(S), USNR, assigned to the First Naval District Intelligence Office. The ship conducted her shakedown out of New London, Conn., and Boston.
Vagrant ultimately arrived at Newport, R.I., on 11 August 1942 for special duty under the orders of the Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier. Tragically, Vagrant lost a member of her crew when CBM (AA) Daniel E. Cameron, who had reported on board from the Receiving Station, Boston, on 5 September, suffered an accidental gunshot wound and died on 8 September.
Successively transferred to the First and Third Naval Districts for local operations in a patrol and training capacity, Vagrant was decommissioned and placed “in service” on 29 December 1943, four days after Christmas. She performed training duties with the Third Naval District for the duration of the war with Germany. On 30 May 1945, the Commandant, Third Naval District, authorized Vagrant to be inactivated, preparatory to her turnover to the War Shipping Administration (WSA). Placed “out of service” and laid up on 6 August, Vagrant was stricken from the Navy Register on 1 September 1945 and transferred to the WSA on 14 December.
Initially sold to tin-plate heir William B. Leeds, Jr., in 1946 and renamed Moana, the yacht was re-purchased by Harold Vanderbilt the following year; that same year (1947), however, Vagrant disappeared from Lloyd’s Register of Yachts. Sold to Ralph C. Allen of Oyster Bay, Long Island, N.Y., in 1948, the new owner returned the ship’s original name to Vagrant. Four years later, in 1952, the ship changed hands again, when she was purchased by the Orion Shipping & Trading Co., of New York, and operated from the port of Tortola, British West Indies. She began operating under Liberian colors in 1955.
Decades after that time of transition for the ship, Vagrant became stranded in 1977 on the island of Gran Canaria. Acquired by a João Bartolomeu Faria, who apparently wanted to restore the yacht to seaworthy condition, he brought her to the island of Madeira two years later [1979], where she became a restaurant, forming part of a marina complex.
A storm of 20 February 2010, however, prompted Madeira’s regional government to endeavor to renovate the area, and moved Vagrant to another location. Returned to her element subsequently, she was towed to Caniçal, the principal cargo port of Madeira, with plans to sink her offshore to form an artificial reef. Unfortunately, in December 2013, a storm pounded the island’s south shore, and Vagrant sank in Caniçal Bay.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
28 June 2022
