Pert; USS, PG-95
Saucily free and forward, lively, vivacious.
Builder: Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Co., Ltd., Quebec, Canada
Length: 208'
Beam: 33'
Draft: 14' 7"
Displacement: 925 tons
Commissioned: 23 July 1943
Decommissioned: 3 October 1945
Disposition: Sold
Speed:
Maximum: 17 knots
Cruising: 12 knots
Range: 7,300 nautical miles at 12 knots
Complement: 87
Armament: 2 x 3"/50; 4 x 20mm; 3 x .30 caliber Browning machine guns; 2 depth charge tracks--20 depth charges per rack; 4 depth charge "K-gun" projectors; 1 x hedgehog added 1943(?)
History:
The Pert (PG–95), one of eight Canadian-built corvettes turned over to the Navy for operation by the Coast Guard, was laid down by Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Co., Ltd., Quebec, Canada on 22 July 1942. She was launched on 27 November 1942; and commissioned at Quebec 23 July 1943 under the command of LT A. L. Cunningham, USCG.
Pert remained at Quebec until 7 September; thence, she sailed with Prudent (PG–96) via Halifax to Boston where she arrived 18 September. After fitting out, she carried out an intensive shakedown off Bermuda early in November. Returning to New York 20 November, she was assigned to the Eastern Sea Frontier, and began convoy escort patrols 28 November.
Between 28 November and 4 December, Pert screened Convoy NG-401 from New York to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On 2 December she carried out a depth charge attack against a suspected submarine without results. The gunboat made the return run to New York 9-17 December, and on the 23d she joined the screen of her next Cuban-bound convoy, NG-406.
During the remainder of the war Pert continued her important escort and patrol operations along the East Coast and into the Caribbean. Based at Tompkinsville, New York, she served with sister gunboats including Action and Impulse. Their outstanding performance helped lessen the threat of U-boats against Allied shipping. Moreover, they permitted the larger destroyer types to wage aggressive hunter-killer patrols against the German submarines.
Following the defeat of the Axis powers, Pert operated out of the 3d Naval District until 3 October 1945 when she decommissioned. Her name was struck from the Naval Register 24 October 1945. Transferred to the Maritime Commission 18 October 1946, she was immediately delivered to her buyer, United Boat Service Co. of City Island, N.Y.
Sources:
The Coast Guard at War: Transports and Escorts, V, Volume I (Washington, DC: U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, March 1, 1949), p. 103.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
Cutter File, Historian's Office, Coast Guard Headquarters.