USS Monomoy (AG-40)

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Career (USA)
Name:	USS Monomoy
Namesake:	A point and island off the west coast of Cape Cod in Nantucket Shoals
Owner:	1918: Template:USSB before 1941: Steel Products Transportation Company, Buffalo, New York
Builder:	Globe Shipbuilding Company, Duluth, Minnesota
Yard number:	104
Launched:	29 August 1918 as Lake Arline
Completed:	October 1918
Acquired:	15 September 1941 as J. Floyd Massey, Jr.
Commissioned:	24 December 1941 as USS Monomoy (AG-40)
Recommissioned:	as USCGC Monomoy (WPC-275)
Decommissioned:	22 October 1943
Renamed:	Monomoy, 15 October 1941
Struck:	30 October 1943
Fate:	scrapped, 1951
General characteristics
Type:	commercial cargo ship
Displacement:	2,580 tons
Length:	261'
Beam:	43' 6"
Draft:	18'
Propulsion:	triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, single shaft, 1,200shp
Speed:	10 knots
Complement:	70 officers and enlisted
Armament:	one 4"/50 single gun mount, four .50 cal. machine guns, two depth charge projectors

USS Monomoy (AG-40) was a commercial cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. She was outfitted with guns and depth charges and sent into the dangerous waters of the North Atlantic Ocean to report on weather conditions and to act as escort vessel when required. She was manned by a U.S. Coast Guard crew and was eventually transferred to that agency as USCGC Monomoy (WAG-275).

Built in Minnesota

Monomoy (AG-40) was built In 1918 by Globe Shipbuilding Co., Duluth, Minnesota; acquired as J. Floyd Massey, Jr. 15 September 1941 from Steel Products Transportation Company, Buffalo, New York; renamed Monomoy 15 October 1941; and commissioned 24 December 1941.

World War II Navy service

Monomoy, manned and operated by the U.S. Coast Guard, joined the Weather Patrol, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, in 1942. From her base at Boston, Massachusetts, she periodically sailed to weather stations 1 and 2, where she provided weather reports vital for the safety of convoys and air commerce.

Operating in dangerous waters, she made frequent contact with marauding submarines. Attacked by a NaziU-boat 24 July, she returned fire, damaging the submarine, forcing it to break off action.

She continued patrolling the North Atlantic Ocean for the next 15 months, and despite enemy harassment and rough seas, was able to render valuable service to those crossing the Atlantic.

Transferred to the Coast Guard

She was formally transferred to the Coast Guard 22 October 1943, and stricken from the Naval Register 30 October. Redesignated WAG-275, Monomoy served the Coast Guard through the remainder of the war and was then transferred to the U.S. Maritime Commission. She was scrapped in 1951.

See also

• United States Navy
• United States Coast Guard
• World War II

References

• This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - AG-40 Monomoy - USCGC Monomoy (WAG-275)