USS Davenport

Career
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Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	8 December 1943
Commissioned:	15 February 1945
Decommissioned:	4 February 1946
Struck:
Fate:	Sold for scrap 6 June 1946
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,264 tons
Length:	303 ft 11 in
Beam:	37 ft 6 in
Draft:	13 ft 8 in
Propulsion:	Three boilers 2 × 5,500 SHP turbines two shafts
Speed:	20 knots
Range:
Complement:	215
Armament:	3 × 3 in/50 guns (3x1) 4 × 40mm guns (2x2) 9 × 20mm (9x1) 1 × Hedgehog projector 8 × Y-gun depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge racks
Motto:

USS Davenport (PF-69), a Tacoma-class frigate, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Davenport, Iowa.

Davenport (PF-69), originally classified as PG-177, was launched on 8 December 1943 by Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Company of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, under a Maritime Commission contract, sponsored by Mrs. E. Frick; transferred to the Navy on 1 June 1944 and placed in service the same day; placed out of service for additional work a week later; and commissioned in full on 15 February 1945, with Commander H. F. Stolfi, USCG, in command of a crew of 215 USCG officers and enlisted men.

Departing Norfolk, Virginia, on 17 April 1945, Davenport joined Pert (PG-95) and Action (PG-86) for an anti-submarine patrol off Casco Bay. She returned to New York on 24 April, and 3 days later got underway to escort a convoy to Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, returning to Norfolk on 7 June. Two days later she entered the Navy Yard at Charleston, South Carolina, for conversion to a weather ship. This involved removing the number three 3-inch gun and installing in its place a hangar used to house meteorological equipment and to inflate and launch weather balloons.

Davenport stood out from Charleston on 26 June 1945, and on 1 July took station off NS Argentia, Newfoundland to report meteorological data. She remained on this duty until 21 October aside from the period August 6 to 21 during which she towed SC-705 to Reykjavík, Iceland. Arriving at Boston Navy Yard 25 October, Davenport remained there until decommissioned on 4 February 1946. She was sold 6 June 1946.

References