USS Belfast, PF-35
A city in Maine.
Builder: Consolidated Steel Corp., Ltd., Wilmington, CA
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:
Belfast (PF-35) was launched 20 May 1943 by Consolidated Steel Corp., Ltd., Wilmington, CA, under a Maritime Commission contract. She was sponsored by Miss Elizabeth C. Wilson. Belfast was commissioned 24 November 1943 under the command of LCDR J. J. Hutson, Jr., USCG.
The Coast Guard manned Belfast joined the 7th Fleet at Cairns, Australia, 29 May 1944 and served as a patrol vessel and convoy escort. She took part in the landings at Noemfoor Island (2 July 1944) and Cape Opmari, New Guinea (30 July 1944). Belfast helped escort one of the follow up convoys to Leyte and remained in the area between 29 October and 8 December 1944. On 30 December she got underway for Boston, arriving 24 January 1945. There, she underwent repair and overhaul preparatory to transfer to the USSR under LendLease.
Departing Boston 28 March 1945 she steamed to Alaska and, following a short familiarization period for a Russian crew, was transferred 12 July 1945. She was commissioned into the Soviet Navy as EK-3 and was lost in a storm off Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, 17 November 1948.
Belfast received two battle stars for her operations in the Southwest Pacific.
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. 1, p. 112.
Richard A. Russell. Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan. [The U.S. Navy in the Modern World Series, No. 4.] Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center/U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997, pp. 39-40.