USS PC-1264

The submarine chaser PC-1264 was one of just two Navy ships in the Second World War with a mostly African-American enlisted crew. The other was the destroyer escort Mason. When PC-1264 was commissioned in April of nineteen forty-four, eight white petty officers came aboard, one for each specialty the ship needed. Their job was to train the Black crew until the commanding officer judged the men expert enough to be promoted themselves. Months later, eight African-American crewmen were promoted, and the eight white petty officers were transferred off. That made PC-1264 the only ship in the Navy with a completely African-American crew. The Mason never made the same swap. The ship served less than twenty-two months, escorting convoys between New York, Charleston, Key West and Cuba. She was sold for scrapping. She never got scrapped. The hull is still at the Donjon Marine Yard in Rossville, on Staten Island.