USS Gloucester, PF-22
A city and port of Essex County, Massachusetts.
Builder: Walter Butler Shipbuilding Company, Superior, Wisconsin
Length: 303' 11"
Beam: 37' 6"
Draft: 12' 8" fl
Displacement: 2,230 tons
Propulsion: 2-shaft VTE, 3 boilers
Range: 9,500 nm at 12 knots
Top speed: 20 knots
Complement: 190
Armament: 3 x 3"/50; 2 x 40mm (2x2); 9 x 20mm; 1 x Hedgehog, 8 x depth charge projectors; 2 x depth charge racks. For those frigates fitted out for weather patrol duty, the after 3-inch gun was removed and a weather balloon hanger was added aft.
History:
The Gloucester (PF-22) a frigate, was launched 12 July 1943 by the Walter Butler Shipbuilding Co., Superior, Wis., under a Maritime Commission contract; sponsored by Mrs. Emily K. Ross ; acquired and simultaneously commissioned 10 December 1943.
Following shakedown, Gloucester was employed in training frigate crews at Galveston, Texas. On 16 June 1944 she was attached to Escort Division 38 and was later ordered to the Alaskan Sea Frontier for transfer to Russia under lendlease legislation. Leased to Russia 4 September 1945 and renamed EK-26, she served as a patrol vessel in the Far East. Gloucester was returned to the United States at Yokosuka, Japan, 31 October 1949 and recommissioned 11 October 1950.
She sailed from Yokosuka 27 November 1950 for Korea and conducted patrol and antisubmarine warfare duties at Wonsan, Pusan, Inchon, and Kusan until returning to Yokosuka 21 January 1951. Gloucester subsequently engaged in patrol and escort duties at Wonsan and saw combat 18 June 1951 when with other ships she blasted gun emplacements at Wonsan. She continued her duties in Korean waters through the fall of 1951.
On 11 November 1951 while cruising off Kojo in a duel with shore batteries, Gloucester took a direct hit that killed 1 man and wounded 11. Following repairs at Japan, she returned to Korean waters to continue effective support of U.N. forces ashore. Arriving at Yokosuka 5 September 1952, she decommissioned there 15 September 1952. Gloucester was loaned to Japan 1 October 1953, struck from the Navy List 1 December 1961, and transferred to Japan in March 1962 where she served as Tsuge (PF-292).
Sources:
The Coast Guard At War, Transports and Escorts, Vol. V, No. 1, p. 142.
Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1992, pp. 148-149.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. III, p. 110.
Russell, Richard A. Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan. No. 4. The U.S. Navy in the Modern World Series. Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1997.