USS Emporia, PF-28
A town in Kansas.
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:
Emporia (PF-28) was launched 30 August 1943 by Walter Butler Shipbuilding Co., Superior, Wisconsin. She was sponsored by Mrs. George M. Barnaby. She was "placed in service" between 12 and 22 June 1944 for passage to Houston, Texas and was commissioned 7 October 1944, LCDR L. Anderson, USCGR, in command. Emporia arrived at Argentia, Newfoundland, 3 December 1944 to begin the vitally important duty of relaying weather reports from stations at sea between Newfoundland and Bermuda. Operating primarily in northern latitudes, she accumulated data essential to planning the movement of ships and aircraft throughout the Atlantic. After the close of the war, she continued this duty to aid the movement of troops home from Europe. On 22 August 1946, Emporia arrived at New Orleans, where on 14 March 1946 she was decommissioned, and immediately re-commissioned as a ship of the U.S. Coast Guard. She was again decommissioned 28 August 1946, and sold to France 26 March 1947 for continued weather patrol service.
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. 148149.
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. II, p. 349.