USS Bath, PF-55  

A city in southwest Maine on the Kennebec River near the Atlantic.

Builder:  Froemming Brothers, Inc., Milwaukee, WI

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:

The second Bath (PF-55) was launched 14 November 1943 by Froemming Brothers, Inc., Milwaukee, WI and was sponsored by Mrs. Myra W. S. Dean. 

She was brought down the Mississippi River to the Pendleton Shipyards in New Orleans for completion and fitting out.  Here she was commissioned 1 September 1944 under the command of CDR J. R. Stewart, USCG.

The Coast Guard-manned Bath was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and based at the Naval Frontier Base, Tompkinsville, NY.  On 1 January she joined Escort 1 Division 38, serving under Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier.  Until 17 May 1945 she escorted convoys between New York and Guantanamo, Cuba, as well as operating on coastal anti-submarine patrol.

She departed New York 14 June for Seattle, WA, and on 13 July 1945 was transferred to the Soviet Navy under the Lend-Lease Act.  She was commissioned into the Soviet Navy as the EK-29.  Bath was returned to the Navy at Yokosuka, Japan, 15 November 1949 and placed out of commission in reserve.  On 23 December 1953 she was loaned to Japan.  

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. 105.

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.