USS Newport (PF-27)

USS Newport (PF-27), a Tacoma-class frigate in commission from 1944 to 1945, and from 1950 to 1952, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Newport, Rhode Island. She later served in the Soviet Navy as EK-28 and in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as JDS Kaede (PF-13), JDS Kaede (PF-293) and as YAC-17.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Newport.

History
United States
Name: Newport
Namesake: City of Newport, Rhode Island
Reclassified: PF-27, 15 April 1943
Builder: Walter Butler Shipbuilding Company, Superior, Wisconsin
Yard number: 24
Laid down: 8 June 1943
Launched: 15 August 1943
Sponsored by: Mrs. Nicholas Brown
Commissioned: 8 September 1944
Decommissioned: 4 September 1945[1]
Fate: Transferred to Soviet Navy, 4 September 1945[1]
Acquired: Returned by Soviet Navy, 14 November 1949
Recommissioned: 27 July 1950
Decommissioned: 30 April 1952
Fate: Transferred to Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 1 October 1953
Stricken: 1 December 1961
Acquired: Returned by Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 20 May 1975
Fate: Final disposition unknown
Soviet Union
Name: EK-28[2]
Acquired: 4 September 1945[1]
Commissioned: 4 September 1945[3]
Fate: Returned to United States, 14 November 1949
Japan
Name: JDS Kaede (PF-293)
Acquired: 1 October 1953
Reclassified: PF-293, 1 September 1957
Renamed: YAC-17, 31 March 1966
Reclassified: Auxiliary stock craft (YAC), 31 March 1966
Decommissioned: 31 March 1972
Fate: Returned to United States, 20 May 1975
General characteristics
Class and type: Tacoma-class frigate
Displacement:
  • 1,430 long tons (1,453 t) light
  • 2,415 long tons (2,454 t) full
Length: 303 ft 11 in (92.63 m)
Beam: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Draft: 13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
Propulsion:
  • 2 × 5,500 shp (4,101 kW) turbines
  • 3 boilers
  • 2 shafts
Speed: 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement: 190
Armament:

Construction and commissioning

Originally classified as a patrol gunboat, PG-135, Newport was reclassified as a patrol frigate, PF-46, on 15 April 1943. She was laid down by the Walter Butler Shipbuilding Company in Superior, Wisconsin, on 8 June 1943, and launched on 15 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Nicholas Brown. She was commissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 8 September 1944, with Lieutenant Commander G. L. Holt, USCG, in command.

Service history

U.S. Navy, World War II, 1944-1945

After shakedown at Bermuda, Newport proceeded from New York, New York, to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, on escort duty, returning on 24 February 1945 to Tompkinsville on Staten Island, New York, her home port for exercises and patrol off the United States East Coast until 9 July 1945.

Earmarked for transfer to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula, a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy in anticipation of the Soviet Union joining the war against Japan, Newport steamed via the Panama Canal and Seattle, Washington, to Cold Bay in the Territory of Alaska to train her new Soviet crew.[4]

Soviet Navy, 1945–1949

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, Newport was decommissioned on 4 September 1945[1] at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately[1] along with her sister ships USS Gloucester (PF-22), USS Bath (PF-55), and USS Evansville (PF-70), the last of 28 patrol frigates transferred to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula. Commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,[3] Newport was designated as a storozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamed EK-28[2] in Soviet service.[5]

On 5 September 1945, all ship transfers to the Soviet Union were ordered stopped, although training for ships already transferred was allowed to continue. Accordingly, EK-28 remained at Cold Bay along with EK-26 (ex-Gloucester), EK-29 (ex-Bath), and EK-30 (ex-Evanvsille) for additional shakedown and training until 17 September 1945, when all four ships departed in company bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union, the last four of the 149 Project Hula ships to do so. Too late for World War II service with the Soviet Navy, EK-28 served as a patrol vessel in the Soviet Far East.[6]

In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II. On 8 May 1947, United States Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal informed the United States Department of State that the United States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned, EK-28 among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships were protracted, but on 14 November 1949 the Soviet Union finally returned EK-28 to the U.S. Navy at Yokosuka, Japan.[7]

U.S. Navy, Korean War, 1950–1953

Reverting to her original name, Newport lay idle in the Pacific Reserve Fleet until recommissioned on 27 July 1950 for service in the Korean War. Lieutenant Commander P.A. Lilly became her recommissioning Commanding Officer. She patrolled off Inchon, Korea, from 15 to 26 September 1950, screening United Nations ships during the Inchon landings. Lilly recalled, "The extreme tides made for extreme currents and rip tides. When I went alongside an anchored tanker, I had to keep engines turning to stay alongside until fully moored. After the troops were safely ashore, we (escort ships) made our way back to Japan with the newly empty troop ships." [8]

Newport then was converted for service as a weather ship, and so served on ocean weather stations in the Northwest Pacific Ocean until November 1951, when she took up varied duties off Korea, including screening underway replenishment groups, patrolling, and on 29 December 1951 conducting a shore bombardment at Wonsan. She next operated in the Philippine Islands until decommissioning at Yokosuka on 30 April 1952 and returning to a reserve status.

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 1953–1975
For other ships with the same name, see Japanese ship Kaede.

Loaned to Japan on 1 October 1953 for service in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), the ship was commissioned as JDS Kaede (PF-13) (かえで (PF-13), "maple").[9] The JMSDF reclassified her as PF-293 on 1 September 1957.[9] The U.S. Navy struck her from the U.S. Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1961, and the United States transferred her to the JMSDF outright on 28 August 1962. Kaede was reclassified as an "auxiliary stock craft" (YAC) and renamed YAC-17 on 31 March 1966,[9] serving thereafter as a non-operational training ship. Decommissioned on 31 March 1972, YAC-17 was returned to U.S. custody on 20 May 1975. Her final disposition is unknown.

Awards
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References
  1. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Newport II article states that Newport "arrived at Cold Bay to decommission" on 9 September 1945 and hazegray.org Newport repeats this, while NavSource Online: Frigate Photo Archive Newport (PF 27) ex-PG-135 states that she was decommissioned on 9 September 1945 and that she was transferred to the Soviet Union on 10 September 1945, but more recent research in Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, pp. 34-35, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, reports that the transfer date was 4 September 1945 at Cold Bay. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994. It should also be noted that the table showing all Project Hula transfers in Russell, p. 39, also gives a transfer date of 9 September 1945, although text in Russell, pp. 34-35, makes clear that Newport and three other patrol frigates were transferred on 4 September 1945 and were the last ships transferred in Project Hula, and that all Project Hula transfers were ordered halted on 5 September 1945. According to Russell, Project Hula ships were decommissioned by the U.S. Navy simultaneously with their transfer to the Soviet Navy – see photo captions on p. 24 regarding the transfers of various large infantry landing craft (LCI(L)s) and information on p. 27 about the transfer of USS Coronado (PF-38), which Russell says typified the transfer process – indicating that Newport's U.S. Navy decommissioning, transfer, and Soviet Navy commissioning all occurred simultaneously on 4 September 1945.
  2. NavSource Online: Frigate Photo Archive Newport (PF 27) ex-PG-135 claims that Newport was named EK-27 in Soviet service, but Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 39, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, reports that the ship's Soviet name was EK-28. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994.
  3. According to Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, which includes access to Soviet-era records unavailable during the Cold War, Project Hula ships were commissioned into the Soviet Navy simultaneously with their transfer from the U.S. Navy; see photo captions on p. 24 regarding the transfers of various large infantry landing craft (LCI(L)s) and information on p. 27 about the transfer of USS Coronado (PF-38), which Russell says typified the transfer process. As sources, Russell cites Department of the Navy, Ships Data: U.S. Naval Vessels Volume II, 1 January 1949, (NAVSHIPS 250-012), Washington, DC: Bureau of Ships, 1949; and Berezhnoi, S. S., Flot SSSR: Korabli i suda lendliza: Spravochnik ("The Soviet Navy: Lend-Lease Ships and Vessels: A Reference"), St. Petersburg, Russia: Belen, 1994.
  4. Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, p. 35.
  5. Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, pp. 35, 39.
  6. Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, pp. 34, 35, 39.
  7. Russell, Richard A., Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan, Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, ISBN 0-945274-35-1, pp. 37-38, 39.
  8. "A Sailor's Life", memoirs of Capt. P.A. "Tony" Lilly, USN (ret).
  9. The Naval Database.


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