USS Niagara ( PG - 52 ) The seventh USS " Niagara " ( CMc - 2 / PG - 52 / AGP - 1 ) was an auxiliary ship of the United States Navy during World War II . " Niagara " laid down on 14 November 1928 as the steel - hulled civilian yacht " Hi - Esmaro " by the Bath Iron Works , Maine , launched on 7 June 1929 , and delivered on 20 August . She was purchased by the Navy on 16 October 1940 from Mrs . Hiram Edward Manville of New York City . Converted to a coastal minelayer at the New York Navy Yard , and designated CMc - 2 on 31 October 1940 , the ship was renamed " Niagara " , on 12 November 1940 , and reclassified as a patrol gunboat , PG - 52 on 15 November 1940 . She commissioned at New York on 20 January 1941 , Lt . Edwin W . Herron in command . Service history . Caribbean . " Niagara " got underway from New York on 4 February 1941 to tend units of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 2 operating between Miami and Key West , Florida , and Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . She departed Key West on 20 March 1941 for repairs at New York and operations at the Naval Torpedo Station , Newport , Rhode Island during the summer . Pacific . " Niagara " stood out from New York on 30 August 1941 en route to Hawaii , via Guantanamo Bay , the Panama Canal , and San Diego , arriving at Pearl Harbor on 9 October to patrol on the Hawaiian Sea Frontier . On 29 November she departed as a unit of the escort of a convoy bound to the Fiji Islands . She was at sea with the convoy when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor . The gunboat returned to that port on 15 December , serving as tender to units of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 1 until 1 April 1942 . She then escorted a convoy to San Diego en route Coco Solo , Panama Canal Zone , where she tended torpedo boats and helped to guard the approaches to the Panama Canal . During overhaul in the New York Navy Yard in the summer , she fitted out to serve at Newport , Rhode Island , as a school ship for a training squadron of motor torpedo boats . She headed for the Southwest Pacific on 27 November via the Panama Canal and the Society Islands . En route , on 13 January 1943 " Niagara " was reclassified as the Navy ' s first motor torpedo boat tender and redesignated AGP – 1 . " Niagara " arrived at Nouméa , New Caledonia on 17 January 1943 and began tending Motor Torpedo Boat Division 23 , Squadron 8 . She sailed with the division on the 27th and reached her base at Tulagi , Solomon Islands on 17 February . In ensuing months , she tended the motor torpedo boats running security patrols off Guadalcanal . Attacked at Tulagi . On 7 April the Japan ese raided the Guadalcanal - Tulagi area with 177 planes , of which about 25 were shot down . Two bombs sank the New Zealand corvette . " Niagara " , in the thick of the fight , was north of the harbor , moored to the west bank of the Maliali River , heading downstream with minesweeper tied up outboard well aft . Nine enemy planes came up the river , none of them over 150 feet above the water . " Niagara " and " Rail " took them all under fire . The first plane , already aflame , crashed into trees about 1 , 000 yards astern of " Niagara " . The next two planes escaped , but the fourth rapidly lost altitude in a stream of white smoke to explode behind the hills to the north . The following two raiders passed within 150 yards and attempted to strafe the ship , but their firing was erratic and they wobbled uncertainly as they passed through " Niagara ' s " heavy fire before crashing into the woods off her port quarter The next two planes sheared up and to the right when taken under fire . One trailed light brown smoke as it disappeared close over the hilltops abaft " Niagara ' s " port beam . The other passed to starboard and crashed in the hills on her starboard quarter . Sinking of " Niagara " . On 22 May " Niagara " , with Motor Torpedo Boat Division 23 , departed Tulagi headed towards New Guinea . The following morning a high - flying Japanese twin - engined monoplane attacked with four bombs . The ship made a tight starboard turn at maximum speed until the bombs were released , then swung ship hard to port . Three near - misses to starboard and one to port damaged " Niagara ' s " sound gear and the training mechanism of one 3 inch gun and knocked out steering control temporarily . Half an hour later , when steering control had been regained , six more highflying twin - engine planes dropped a pattern of over a dozen bombs . One hit directly on Niagara ' s forecastle and several were damaging near - misses . Water rushing through a 14 inch hole 6 feet below her waterline flooded two storerooms , a passageway , and her engine room . All power and lighting failed , and her main engines stopped . Fire below decks forward was out of control , and " Niagara " listed rapidly to port . Her main engine and steering control were restored 7 minutes after the attack . But her increasing list and imminent danger of explosion of her gasoline storage tanks necessitated the order to " abandon ship . " " PT – 147 " launched a torpedo which struck " Niagara " in the gasoline tanks . She exploded with a sheet of flame 300 feet high , and went down in less than a minute . The motor torpedo boats landed her crew at Tulagi early the next morning . Awards . " Niagara " received one battle star for World War II service .