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USS Cythera (PY-31)
Patrol vessel of the United States Navy / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other ships with the same name, see USS Cythera.
The second USS Cythera (PY-31) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1942 to 1944 and in non-commissioned service from 1944 to 1946. She also served in the Israeli Navy as INS Ma'oz (K 234) from 1948 to 1956.
Quick Facts History, Flag unknown ...
![]() USS Cythera (PY-31) on 10 November 1943. | |
History | |
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Flag unknown | |
Name | Argosy |
Builder | Germania Werft, Kiel, Germany |
Completed | 1931 |
Renamed | Vita |
Renamed | Abril |
Fate | Sold to U.S. Navy 14 July 1942 |
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Name | USS Cythera (PY-31) |
Namesake | Cythera, one of the Ionian Islands |
Acquired | 14 July 1942 |
Commissioned | 26 October 1942 |
Decommissioned | 3 January 1944 |
In service | 3 January 1944 (non-commissioned) |
Out of service | 14 March 1946 |
Fate |
|
Flag unknown | |
Name | Abril |
Owner | Tyre Shipping Company |
Operator | Irgun Zvai Leumi |
In service | 1946 |
Renamed | Ben Hecht |
Namesake | Ben Hecht (1894–1964), American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, novelist, and Zionist |
Fate | Captured 8 March 1947 |
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Name | INS Ma'oz (K 24) |
Commissioned | September 1948 |
Fate | Sold 1956 |
Flag unknown | |
Name | Abril |
In service | 1956 |
![]() | |
Name | Santa Maria del Mare |
Fate | Sold 2008 |
Flag unknown | |
Name | Rossy One |
Status | Active as private luxury yacht 2009 |
General characteristics as U.S. Navy vessel | |
Type | Patrol vessel |
Displacement | 800 tons (full-load) |
Length | 205 ft 7 in (62.66 m) |
Beam | 30 ft (9.1 m) |
Draft | 10 ft 10 in (3.3 m) |
Propulsion | 2 × 1,800 bhp (1,342 kW) Atlas[1] or 2 × 2,060 bhp (1,536 kW) Krupp[2] diesel engines, two shafts |
Speed | 15 knots |
Complement | 74 |
Armament |
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In addition to naval service, the vessel operated as the blockade runner Ben Hecht to smuggle Jewish refugees into Mandatory Palestine, as a civilian yacht under various names, and as a ferry in Italy.