USS Opal (PYc-8)

Opal was originally designed by the naval architecture firm of Cox & Stevens[1] as the steel-hulled motor yacht Coronet for American businessman Irving T. Bush. It was built in 1928 at Kiel, Germany by Germania Werft.[2] This vessel was named after the smaller schooner yacht Coronet of 1885, built for Irving's father Rufus T. Bush and known for its victory in an 1887 transatlantic ocean race. The first Coronet was also the vessel upon which young Irving Bush and his family had sailed around the world in 1888.[3][4] The new diesel-powered Coronet featured a library, a living room with an open fireplace, a dining room, six staterooms (each with its own bathroom), and space for a crew of 20. The yacht had a 7,000 mile range.[4]

During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Coronet served as a pleasure yacht, for example cruising around the Mediterranean Sea[5] and participating in New York Yacht Club activities on Long Island Sound.[6]

From 1931 through the end of the 1930s, Coronet stayed in south Florida, in and near Miami, maintained and ready for service, yet inactive.[7] In 1935, Bush transferred ownership of the yacht to his wife, Marian Spore Bush. As both husband and wife were officially residents of New York City, and the Coronet was registered in New York but kept in Florida, the yacht became the subject of a property taxation dispute, which was finally settled by the Florida Supreme Court in 1939.[7]

Coronet was purchased by the United States Navy from M.S. Bush on 27 January 1941 and converted for naval service at Merrill-Stevens Drydock Co. in Miami, Florida. It was commissioned Opal on 10 June 1941.[2]

Opal reported 23 August 1941 at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba for service in the 10th Naval District. The vessel patrolled off Cuba and among the Greater Antilles prior to arrival at Trinidad, 24 April 1942, for similar “inshore patrol” duties. Early in October 1941 it sailed to the Charleston Navy Yard for installation of new sound detection equipment before returning to action against German submarines in the Caribbean Sea. Opal frequently served on escort missions between Guantanamo and Trinidad during the first eight months of 1943.[2]

In 1943, the US Navy reassigned Opal to serve as a training ship for Ecuadorian naval crews. It was lent to Ecuador on 23 September 1943 under the Lend-Lease Program and renamed Manabi. The United States sold the vessel to Ecuador on 13 May 1949 and the US Navy struck its name from the Navy List on 7 June 1949. The Ecuadorian Navy scrapped the vessel in 1960.[2]

• List of patrol vessels of the United States Navy

• NavSource Online's article on Opal, with photos of the vessel as Coronet, Opal, and Manabi
• HyperWar: USS Opal (PYc-8)
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.