USS Milledgeville, PF-94
A city in Georgia.
Builder: American Shipbuilding Co., Lorain, Ohio
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; 4 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:
Originally named for PF-98 which had been reclassified from PG-206 on 13 April 1943. Named Milledgeville 11 October 1943 while under construction at American Shipbuilding Co., Lorain, Ohio. However, her construction was canceled 31 December 1943 and her name was reassigned to PF-94 on 7 February 1944.
The first Milledgeville (PF-94), which was originally classified PG-202, was reclassified PF-94 on 15 April 1943. She was originally christened Sitka 11 October 1943 and was laid down under Maritime Commission contract by American Shipbuilding Co., Lorain, Ohio 9 November 1943. She was renamed Milledgeville 7 February 1944, launched 5 April 1944 and was sponsored by Mrs. Sara Allen Moore. She was placed in service at New Orleans 16 November 1944. She then steamed to Charleston, South Carolina and arrived 18 November. She was then placed out of service 24 November and underwent conversion to a weather station ship in Charleston Navy Yard. Milledgeville commissioned 18 January 1945 at Charleston under the command of LCDR Joseph H. Hantman, USCG.
Following shakedown and training off Bermuda, Milledgeville reported for duty with TF 24. Between 3 and 5 April she sailed to Argentia, Newfoundland, and on the 7th she departed on her initial weather patrol in the North Atlantic. Until returning to Argentia 26 April, she operated on Weather Station No. 1 gathering meteorological information and maintaining air-sea rescue patrols. Between 11 May and 25 August Milledgeville carried out three more patrols in North Atlantic waters. She then steamed to Boston for overhaul during September. She returned to Argentia 7 October and completed her 5th North Atlantic patrol 29 October. She arrived Boston 5 November to prepare for weather station duty in the South Atlantic.
Departing Boston 16 November, Milledgeville sailed via Trinidad to Recife, Brazil, where she arrived 1 December. Between 19 and 31 December, she patrolled Weather Station No. 12 off Brazil, thence sailed to Trinidad and to Argentia, arriving off Newfoundland 20 January 1946. Milledgeville resumed North Atlantic patrol duty 21 January, and during the next several months she continued patrols while operating out of Argentia and Boston. She decommissioned at Boston 21 August 1946, and she was sold to Southern Scrap Material Co., New Orleans, 9 April 1946. Her name was struck from the Navy list 23 April 1947 and she was scrapped 25 March 1948.
Sources:
The Coast Guard At War, Transports and Escorts, Vol. V, No. 1.
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. IV, p. 358.