Shipbucket

I'm a little confused. I thought that the U.S. Navy was very careful
about not duplicating ships' names, especially in wartime, so as to
avoid confusion in messages and other communication. The
USS Mackinac and the USCG Icebreaker Mackinaw were both in
service at the same time, both had the same Native American
name source, and despite the slightly different spelling, should
have had the same pronunciation for their names. Can anyone
shed some light on this?

Well, the Mackinaw was Coast Guard, not Navy, and was also landlocked and couldn't leave the Great Lakes and once Mackinac was transferred to the Coast Guard after the war she served in the Atlantic so there was less opportunity for confusion.

Coast Guard and Navy ships often have the same names. The most recent examples are the USCGC Dallas (Hamilton class cutter) and the USS Dallas (Los Angeles class submarine)

it is not an issue because they dont have the same ship prefix, which indicates if they belong to the Navy or the Coast Guard, and it's not a confusion........

Even with the different prefixes it was an issue for the destroyer USS Hamilton and the cutter USCGC Hamilton, which were both guarding Atlantic convoys before America entered the war. Coasties would show up in New York only to find the Navy destroyer and Navy sailors arrived in Boston only to find a Coast Guard cutter. The USN asked the CG to change the name so USCGC Hamilton became USCGC Alexander Hamilton but that didn't fix the problem. Alexander Hamilton was sent to guard convoys without training while Hamilton went through a second round of training. Unfortunately U132 solved the problem in Jan 42.

Just so you know that the project is not abandoned and being worked on, here's former Barnegat-class ship serving in Marina Militare as a special forces support ship:

Great work!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNoMS_Haakon_VII_(A537)

Fine drawing WhyMe

I served aboard the USCGC Unimak (WHEC 379) former USS Unimak (AVP 31) from 1977 to 1980. We made a number of changes to her during the pre-commissioning shipyard availability.
All the 40mm gun mounts and the crane had been removed years before. The fire control station was removed as was the MK52 fire control equipment. In prior commissions, a balloon shelter and a classroom had been added. The classroom was needed when she served as reserve training vessel. Unimak was the last of the class to serve in the U. S.

The MK30 5"/38 remained forward but the O1 Deck forward of the bridge was bare except of the booms and torpedo hatch. The ships were all magazine and fuel space. As the Chief Gunner's Mate I had more spaces I could keep and eventually we decommissioned some the magazines and turned them into general store rooms.

I have a copy of a memoir by Unimak's WWII gunnery officer and he notes she was painted "aviation blue" all over. There is a photo but the reprint in the book is very poor quality.

I will say that this class of ship rode really well. We patrolled the Grand Banks along the NE seaboard and weather got pretty rough at times.