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NavSource Online:
Motor Gunboat/Patrol Gunboat Photo Archive

Left patch courtesy of the Patrol Gunboat Association and right patch courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Surprise (PG 97)
ex-PGM-97


Surprise served the Navies of the United States and Turkey.



Bora call sign:
Tango - Bravo - November - Lima
Asheville Class Motor Gunboat:

  • Laid down 24 May 1968 as PGM-97 by Peterson Builders Inc., Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
  • Launched, 7 December 1968
  • Commissioned USS Surprise (PG-97), 17 October 1969 at Boston, MA
  • Decommissioned 28 February 1973 at Izmir, Turkey and transferred to the Turkish Navy as TCG Bora (P 339)
  • Struck from the Navy Register 8 August 1987
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 250 t.
  • Length 165'
  • Beam 24'
  • Speed 40 kts.
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, one 40mm gun mount and two twin .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion geared diesel engines and gas turbine, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    USS Surprise (PG 97)
    Surprise 139k - Patrol Gunboat Association
    Terry W. McManuels, ETCM(SW), Ret.
    Surprise 48k On trials, 1969.
    US Navy photo from the Dictionary of American Fighting Ships    		 Robert Hurst
    Surprise 119k c. 1969 David Buell
    Surprise 118k 23 August 1971
    The Mediterranean Sea ( SE part of Ionian Sea)
    A portside view of Surprise as she crosses the course of the Soviet missile destroyer Provorny    		 Eugene Ivkin
    TCG Bora (P 339)
    Surprise 89k . Cüneyt Demir
    Surprise 371k . Cüneyt Demir
    Surprise 615k . Cüneyt Demir
    Surprise 37k . Cüneyt Demir
    Surprise 100k . Y. M. Umar, GMC, Turkish Navy, Ret.
    View the Surprise (PG 97)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval Historical Center web site.
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    Patrol Gunboat Association
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