5. USS PC-1264

Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

In October 1943, the Consolidated Shipbuilding Company began building the USS PC-1264, and it was launched in November of the same year. In 1944, the ship was commissioned, two years after African Americans were allowed to enlist for general service in the Navy. Most notably, the USS PC-1264 was one of two United States Navy ships to have a predominantly African American crew. The other ship to hold this distinction was the USS Mason. The ship was in service for only a short time and was decommissioned in 1946. It was sold for scrap in 1948, but still remains in tact at the former Donjon Marine Yard in Staten Island, New York.