USS Mayflower (PY-1) - End of Career

End of Career

Decommissioned on 1 July 1946, Mayflower was sold at Baltimore to Frank M. Shaw on 8 January 1947 for use in the Arctic as a sealer. However, while sailing for sealing waters between Greenland and Labrador, early in March, Mayflower was damaged by fire off Point Lookout and forced to return to Baltimore. Collins Distributors Inc., purchased the ship early in 1948, installed new boilers in her at New York, and documented her as Malla under the Panamanian flag. She was subsequently fitted out at Genoa, Italy, ostensibly for coastwise trade in the Mediterranean. After sailing secretly from Marseilles, she arrived at Haifa in the British Mandate of Palestine on 3 September. On board were Jewish refugees. Most were former passengers of the ill-fated Exodus which had been turned back from Palestine the previous summer.

Purchased by Israel in 1950 and renamed INS Maoz (K 24) and served as a patrol craft and training ship; Broken up in 1955

Mayflower was possibly the only US Navy ship to have been in active commissioned service in the Spanish American War, World War I and World War II. She was also one of the few ships to have served in both the United States and Israeli navies.

Crewmembers of Mayflower were entitled to the following service medals if they served on board her during the eligibility periods indicated —

Sampson Medal (1898), Spanish Campaign Medal (1898), World War I Victory Medal (1917-1919), American Campaign Medal (1941-1946) and the World War Two Victory Medal (1942-1946).