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Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

PC-490



Call sign:
Nan - Baker - William - Dog


PC-490 served the Navies of the United States and the Republic of China.
PC-461 Class Submarine Chaser:

  • Laid down 9 May 1941 by the Dravo Corp., Neville Island, Pittsburgh, PA
  • Launched 18 October 1941
  • Sponsored by Mrs. Robert Hughes
  • Commissioned USS PC-490, 12 May 1942
  • Struck from the Naval Register 13 December 1946
  • Transferred 27 August 1948 to Taiwan and named Wu Sung
  • Struck from the Chinese Navy list in 1952 and scrapped.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 450 t.
  • Length 173' 8"
  • Beam 23'
  • Draft 10' 10"
  • Speed 20.2 kts.
  • Complement 65
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, one 40mm gun mount, five 20mm guns, two rocket launchers, and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,440bhp Hooven-Owen-Rentschler R-99DA diesel engines (Serial No. 6660 and 6661), Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PC-490
    PC-490 111k Launching Bob Daly/PC-1181
    USS PC-490
    PC-490 43k Original photo by Lannie G. Walker SM3, crewmember PC-476
    Replacement photo by Bob Daly/PC-1181
    PC-490 168k c. 1941
    Off Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 91132    		 Mike Green
    Commanding Officers
    01LT John L. Flynn, USNR12 May 1942
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler
    PC-490
    Dravo Corporation,
    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

    Shortly after noon on 18 October 1941, amid the applause of thousands of spectators and the whistled salutes of river craft, the submarine chaser PC-490 slid sideways smoothly on a launching dolly at the shipyard of the Dravo Corporation on Neville Island and floated gracefully in the placid waters of the Ohio River. Neville Island sits in the middle of the Ohio river just west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the first time since the War of 1812 that a sea going fighting ship was launched from this inland river shipyard. It was the first of fifteen PC sub chasers to be built at the Neville Island yard and was the first PC to get underway with H. 0. R. main engines. She served with distinction in the Caribbean and South Atlantic Sea Frontiers, dropping many depth charges while on convoy duty in the early part of the war (1942-44). After overhaul at Miami, Florida she headed for the Pacific theater of operations. VJ Day found her in the Leyte Gulf. She was the first PC to go up the Wangpo River to Shanghai, China and had destroyed many mines in the Yellow Sea. She returned to the states on the 21st of December, 1945.

    On the 27 August 1948, the PC-490 was turned over to the Taiwanese Navy were it served under the name of Wu Sung until 1952, when in was stricken and scrapped.

    R. W. Daly/PC-1181
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