Editing USS Captor

{{Short description|Q-ship built in 1938}}
{{other ships|USS Eagle|USS Eaglet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2022}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=USS Captor PYc-40.jpg
|Ship caption=''Captor'' underway in August 1944
}}
{{Infobox ship class overview
|Name=
|Builders=
|Operators=
|Class before={{sclass|Auk|minesweeper|4}}
|Class after={{sclass|Hawk|minesweeper|4}}
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{USN flag|1944}}
|Ship name=USS ''Captor''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=[[Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation]]'s [[Fore River Shipyard]], [[Quincy, Massachusetts]]
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched=1938
|Ship acquired=by US Navy, 1 January 1942
|Ship commissioned=5 March 1942
|Ship decommissioned=4 October 1944
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=14 October 1944
|Ship reclassified=*AM-132, 28 February 1942
*PYc-40, 18 April 1942
|Ship homeport=
|Ship identification=*{{IMO|5386825}}
*[[Maritime call sign|Callsign]]: WB4343
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honours=
|Ship fate=*Sold, 21 February 1945
*In use as a fishing vessel as of 2009
|Ship status=
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship type=[[Q-ship]]
|Ship displacement={{convert|314|LT|t|0|abbr=on}}
|Ship length={{convert|133|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|26|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draft=
|Ship hold depth=
|Ship propulsion=
|Ship sail plan=
|Ship speed={{convert|12.5|kn|lk=in}}
|Ship range=
|Ship complement=5 officers and 42 enlisted
|Ship 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
|Ship armor=
|Ship 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.org/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]]