USS Bayonne, PF-21
A city in New Jersey.
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; 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:
Bayonne (PF-21) was launched 11 September 1943 by American Shipbuilding Co., Cleveland, Ohio, under a Maritime Commission contract. She was sponsored by Mrs. Hannah Gallagher. Bayonne was commissioned 14 February 1945 and was placed under the command of Commander E. E. Comstock, USCG.
The ship departed Norfolk for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 3 March 1945 where she engaged in training exercises. On 3 April she sailed to Kingston, Jamaica, and then to Philadelphia. Bayonne departed New York 3 July 1945 for Puget Sound Navy Yard where she underwent a brief availability. She sailed for Alaska 21 August and she remained at Cold Bay through 2 September, when she was decommissioned and loaned to Russia under Lend-Lease. The Soviets commissioned her as the EK-25.
Bayonne was returned to the Navy by Russia and placed out of commission in reserve at Yokosuka, Japan, 14 November 1949. She was recommissioned 28 July 1950 at Yokosuka and got underway from Kobe, Japan, to Inchon, Korea,
11 September to participate in the landings there. She continued serving in Korean waters except for occasional visits to Japan for upkeep and resupply, until 31 January 1953 when she was decommissioned and loaned to Japan under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program.
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. 1, p. 107.
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.