View source for USS Captor

{{Short description|Q-ship built in 1938}}
{{other ships|USS Eagle|USS Eaglet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{{Infobox ship
|section1={{Infobox ship/image
 |image=USS Captor PYc-40.jpg
 |image_caption=''Captor'' underway in August 1944
 }}

|section2={{Infobox ship/class overview
 |name=
 |builders=
 |operators=
 |class_before={{sclass|Auk|minesweeper|4}}
 |class_after={{sclass|Hawk|minesweeper|4}}
 }}

|section3={{Infobox ship/career
 |hide_header=
 |country=United States
 |flag={{USN flag|1944}}
 |name=USS ''Captor''
 |namesake=
 |ordered=
 |builder=[[Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation]]'s [[Fore River Shipyard]], [[Quincy, Massachusetts]]
 |laid_down=
 |launched=1938
 |acquired=by US Navy, 1 January 1942
 |commissioned=5 March 1942
 |decommissioned=4 October 1944
 |in_service=
 |out_of_service=
 |struck=14 October 1944
 |reclassified=*AM-132, 28 February 1942
               *PYc-40, 18 April 1942
 |homeport=
 |identification=*{{IMO|5386825}}
                 *[[Maritime call sign|Callsign]]: WB4343
 |motto=
 |nickname=
 |honours=
 |fate=*Sold, 21 February 1945
       *In use as a fishing vessel as of 2009
 |status=
 |notes=
 }}

|section4={{Infobox ship/characteristics
 |hide_header=
 |header_caption=
 |type=[[Q-ship]]
 |displacement={{convert|314|LT|t|0|abbr=on}}
 |length={{convert|133|ft|m|abbr=on}}
 |beam={{convert|26|ft|m|abbr=on}}
 |draft=
 |hold_depth=
 |propulsion=
 |sail_plan=
 |speed={{convert|12.5|kn|lk=in}}
 |range=
 |complement=5 officers and 42 enlisted
 |armament=*1 ×  [[4-inch/50-caliber gun]]
           *2 × [[M2 Browning|.50 cal (12.7 mm)]] machine guns
           *4 × [[Depth charge]] throwers
           *2 × .30-caliber [[Lewis gun]]s
 |armor=
 |notes=
 }}
}}
'''USS ''Captor'' (PYc-40)''', briefly the seventh ship to bear the name '''USS ''Eagle'' (AM-132)''', was a [[Q-ship]] of the [[United States Navy]].

Built as '''''Harvard''''', a steel-hulled [[Commercial trawler|trawler]], in 1938 by [[Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation]]'s [[Fore River Shipyard]], [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], and handed over to General Sea Foods Corporation, Boston, and put into service as '''''Wave'''''.

==Service history==

===Minesweeper===
The fishing trawler was acquired by the Navy as part of the Auxiliary Vessels Act on 1 January 1942. Reporting to the [[Portsmouth Navy Yard]] in [[Kittery, Maine]], the trawler began conversion to war service as a [[minesweeper]] on 8 January. With the work complete on 28 February, she was named ''Eagle'', given the [[hull classification symbol]] AM-132, and placed in commission on 5 March 1942, with Lieutenant Commander [[Leroy E. Rogers]], USNR, in command.

===Q-ship===
Along with {{USS|Asterion|AK-100|3}} and {{USS|Atik|AK-101|3}}, ''Eagle'' was selected
early to participate in a secret "Q-ship" program. The intention was to disguise the ship as a defenseless civilian vessel and, after luring an enemy submarine into close quarters on the surface, open fire with hidden guns and sink the unsuspecting [[U-boat]]. For this reason, ''Eagle'' remained at Portsmouth, where she underwent further conversion into a Q-ship and received weapons and sonar gear. During this second conversion, the minesweeper was renamed ''Captor'' and redesignated '''PYc-40''' on 18 April. With alterations complete on 19 May, the vessel reported for duty with the [[1st Naval District]] at Boston.

Unlike the other four ships eventually in the Q-ship program, ''Captor'' did not sail in convoys or along coastal shipping routes. Instead, she operated in the waters near Boston – in [[Massachusetts Bay]], north to [[Casco Bay]], east to the [[Georges Bank]], and south to [[Nantucket Sound]] and [[Rhode Island Sound]]. While at sea, the disguised Q-ship also helped cover the coastal convoy routes coming north from New York. As growing air and sea patrols had driven most U-boats away from the New England coast in May 1942, ''Captor'' had little chance to spot an enemy submarine and ended her wartime career without a single sighting.

With the decline in the U-boat threat to the east coast of the United States late in the war, ''Captor'' was decommissioned at Boston on 4 October 1944. Stricken from the [[Naval Vessel Register]] on 14 October 1944, the trawler was transferred to the [[War Shipping Administration]] and sold on 21 February 1945.

In 1959, the ship was acquired for use as a fishing boat, and renamed ''Wave''. She passed through several owners over the following decades while serving in this capacity. In 2005, she was acquired by R & J Shipping Inc and returned to her original name ''Harvard''. She went out of documentation in 2009, with her final fate unknown.<ref>{{cite web|title=Captor (PYc 40)|url=http://www.navsource.net/archives/12/1440.htm|website=NavSource|access-date=18 June 2019}}</ref>

As of 2005, no other ship in the United States Navy has been named ''Captor''.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/c3/captor.htm}}

{{WWII US ships}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Captor}}
[[Category:Q-ships of the United States Navy]]
[[Category:Ships built in Quincy, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:1938 ships]]