USS Gulfport, PF-20
A city in Mississippi.
Builder: American Ship Building Company, Cleveland, OH
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.
History:
Gulfport (PF-20), a frigate, was launched on 21 August 1943 by the American Shipbuilding Co., Cleveland, Ohio. She was sponsored by Mrs. John C. Chambers. Gulfport was commissioned at Gulfport, Mississippi, her namesake city, on 16 September 1944. CDR O. A. Knudsen, USCG, assumed command. Gulfport underwent shakedown at Bermuda and returned to Norfolk for training 2 December 1944. The frigate was soon active as a convoy escort, however, departing with her first convoy from Norfolk to Oran, Algeria, 18 December. She continued on this vital duty between Algeria and the United States until VE day.
Scheduled for conversion to a weather ship, Gulfport entered New York Navy Yard 5 July 1945. Upon completion, she was assigned to the Pacific Fleet, sailing via the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor to her new home port of Adak, Alaska, where she arrived 16 September 1945. Gulfport performed weather duties in the Pacific area until she was decommissioned on 28 May 1946 at Seattle.
Her name was struck from the Navy List on 19 June 1946 and she was sold to Zidell Ship Dismantling Company, Seattle, Washington, for scrap on 13 November 1947.
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. 185.