USS Eagle Boat No. 42 (PE-42)
Patrol Craft · United States · Lost 1931 · Boston Harbor & Massachusetts Bay
One of Henry Ford's mass-produced World War I submarine chasers, scrapped from Navy service, was scuttled in Massachusetts Bay in 1931.
The Vessel and Her Loss
PE-42 was one of the steel-hulled Eagle-class patrol boats mass-produced by the Ford Motor Company for anti-submarine patrol during World War I. Commissioned in 1919, she was struck from the Navy list in 1930 and sold for scrap at Roxbury, Massachusetts. She was scuttled in Massachusetts Bay, about eight miles east of Boston Light, on June 15, 1931. Divers today debate whether the wreck commonly attributed to PE-42 is definitively this hull rather than a sister ship.
Vessel
- 1919
- PE-42
- Ford Motor Company
- Detroit, Michigan
- Steel
- 200.75 ft
- 25.75 ft
- 710
- Steam turbine, single screw
- United States Navy
Loss
- June 15, 1931
- Intentional sinking
- About eight miles east of Boston Light, Massachusetts Bay
- Massachusetts Bay
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- 0
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 240 ft
- Mostly intact and upright, stern buried in sand
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
Position
- Not established
- Position not established
- Boston Light, Massachusetts
Evidence
Overall confidence: Partially documented (60/100)
Divers and researchers have not conclusively confirmed that the wreck commonly identified as PE-42 is this specific hull rather than a sister Eagle boat.
Build, commissioning, and scuttling details
Wreckhunter.net (Hunting New England Shipwrecks)
Wreck location, depth, and condition
