USS Newport (PF-27)

History
United States
Name	USS Newport (PG-135)
Namesake	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
Fate	Transferred to Soviet Navy, 4 September 1945
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
History
Soviet Union
Name	EK-28
Acquired	4 September 1945
Commissioned	4 September 1945
Fate	Returned to United States, 14 November 1949
History
Japan
Name	JDS Kaede (PF-13)
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	list error: <br /> list (help); 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	list error: <br /> list (help); 2 × 5,500 shp (4,101 kW) turbines; 3 boilers; 2 shafts
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	190
Armament	list error: <br /> list (help); • 3 × 3"/50 caliber guns (3×1); • 4 × 40 mm guns (2×2); • 9 × 20 mm guns (9×1); • 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar; • 8 × Y-gun depth charge projectors; • 2 × depth charge tracks

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) and as YAC-17.

Construction and commissioning

Newport 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

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.^[1]

Soviet Navy, 1945–1949

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew, Newport was decommissioned on 4 September 1945 at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease immediately 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, Newport was designated as a storozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamed EK-28 in Soviet service.^[2]

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.^[3]

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.^[4]

Korean War, 1950–1953

Reverting to her original name, Newport lay idle in the Pacific Reserve Fleet until recommissioned on 27 July 1950for service in the Korean War. She patrolled off Inchon, Korea, from 15 to 26 September 1950, screening United Nations ships during the Inchon landings.

Newport then was converted for service as a weather ship, and so served on weather stations in the Northwest Pacific 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

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). The JMSDF reclassified her as PF-293 on 1 September 1957. 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, 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.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

^ 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.
^ 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.
^ 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.
^ 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.

External links

Photo gallery of USS Newport at NavSource Naval History
hazegray.org: USS Newport

[1] 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.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

[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, pp. 37-38, 39.

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