From: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol.V p 221

Pascagoula

A river and town in Jackson County, Miss.

PCE-874 was laid down 1 March 1943 by Albina Eng. & Mach. Works, Portland, Oreg.; launched 11 May 1943; and commissioned 31 December 1943, Lt. Roger W. Mabie, USNR, in command.

After shakedown off San Diego, PCE--874 transited the Panama Canal 2 March 1944 and escorted SS Esso Baytown to the port of Aruba, Netherlands West Indies, then proceeded to Recife, Brazil to conduct ASW exercises with Brazilian submarines. This duty was followed with repeated escort voyages to Trinidad and down the South American coast to Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.

PCE--874 departed Recife 29 November with a merchant convoy bound for Key West, Fla., where she arrived 1 1 December. She later transited the Panama Canal and put into Hollandia, New Guinea 2 March 1945. She spent several weeks escorting convoys between Hollandia and Leyte and on 9 April was assigned defense patrol duties in the Philippine Islands. Sailing from Cebu City, she supported the landings at Dumaguette, Negros Island 26 April and participated in a similar operation at Tabluelan, Cebu Island on 2 May. On 5 May she captured two Japanese soldiers in a dugout canoe and interned them at Zamboanga City, Mindanao. The remaining months of the war found PCE--874 on frequent patrol of the Sibitu Passage, the Guinan Roadstead, and the Tawi Tawi Anchorage. She was in San Pedro Bay when the Japanese surrender was announced.

On 15 September she departed Lauaak Bay, Samar, on the first of a series of weather station patrols in support of aerial flights to the Philippine Islands. After overhaul in the fall and winter, she sailed on 4 February 1946 for the Marianas.

PCE--874 arrived Apra Harbor, Guam 23 February and spent the next five months on weather station patrols which took her as far as Kwajalein in the Marshalls. She departed Apra 26 July and returned to San Diego 31 August. On 16 September she left San Diego and, following a brief stay in the Canal Zone, reached New Orleans where she decommissioned 25 November. She was placed in service the same day as a reserve training ship, and assigned to the 8th Naval District.

Alternately based at New Orleans and Corpus Christi, Texas, she spent the remainder of her career conducting countless training cruises, for reservists, to the principal ports of Florida and Guantanamo Bay. PCE--874 was named Pascagoula 15 February 1956. On 30 April 1959, Pascagoula was placed out of service at New Orleans and struck from the Naval Vessel Register 1 May 1959. Pascagoula was loaned to Ecuador 5 December 1960, under the Military Assistance Program. Renamed Manabi (E--02) she serves the Ecuadorean Navy into 1970.