The USS PC-815 was a subchaser assigned to the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet during World War II. Commissioned in Portland, Oregon on April 20, 1943, it served as a shore patrol vessel off the west coast of the United States for the remainder of the war. The ship came to an untimely end on November 11, 1945 when it sank off San Diego after a collision with the destroyer USS Laffey.
The USS PC-815 has gained some minor celebrity in recent years as the ship commanded by L. Ron Hubbard, the 1930s science fiction writer and later founder of the Church of Scientology. Under Hubbard's command, the crew of the PC-815 fought an epic three-day battle in April 1943 in coastal waters off Astoria, Oregon with a mysterious contact claimed by Hubbard to be two Japanese submarines, but which the Navy later determined to be a known magnetic deposit on the seabed. A month later, the PC-815 conducted gunnery exercises involving the shelling of the Islas Coronados to the south-west of San Diego. Unfortunately for Hubbard, the islands belonged to neutral Mexico and were occupied by Mexican coastguards. The Mexican government complained and Hubbard was summarily relieved of command.
After Hubbard was replaced, the USS PC-815 remained in San Diego as a shore patrol vessel but appears to have been mostly inactive during this period. It was restored to active duty on September 2, 1945 but on September 11, the ship collided with the USS Laffey in dense fog off San Diego and sank within two minutes. One man (presumably from the PC-815) was recorded as missing, presumed drowned. Navy divers demolished the wreck in early November 1945. It is reported to be lying at 32°37'54", -117°14'12" in 90 feet of water and is said to be diveable.
