USS Mason (DE-529)

USS Mason with dazzle camouflage
History
United States
Name	Mason
Laid down	14 October 1943
Launched	17 November 1943
Commissioned	20 March 1944
Decommissioned	12 October 1945
Stricken	1 November 1945
Fate	Sold for scrap 1947
General characteristics
Class and type	Evarts-class destroyer escort
Displacement	1,140 short tons (1,030 tonnes)
Length	289 ft 5 in (88.21 m)
Beam	35 ft 1 in (10.69 m)
Draft	8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Complement	156 officers and men
Armament	3 × 3-inch/50-caliber guns 4 × 1.1-inch/75-caliber guns 9 × Oerlikon 20mm cannon 2 × depth charge tracks 8 × depth charge projector 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine projector

USS Mason (DE-529), an Evarts-class destroyer escort, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named Mason, though DE-529 was the only one specifically named for Ensign Newton Henry Mason. USS Mason was one of two US Navy ships with largely African-American crews in World War II. The other was USS PC-1264, a submarine chaser.^[1] These two ships were manned by African Americans as the result of a letter sent to President Roosevelt by the NAACP in mid-December 1941. Entering service in 1944, the vessel was used for convoy duty in the Battle of the Atlantic for the remainder of the war. Following the war, Mason was sold for scrap and broken up in 1947.