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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
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HMS Kilchernan (BEC 4)
ex-PCE-830


PCE-830 was transferred to Great Britain.
PCE-827 Class Patrol Craft Escort: Laid down 24 December 1942 as PCE-830 by the Pullman Standard Car Co., Chicago, IL; LAunched 13 June 1943; Transferred to Great Britian 31 August 1943 and commissioned HMS Kilchernan (Z 04); Redesignated BEC-4; Returned to U.S. Navy custody in December 1946; Struck from the Navy Register in 1947; Sold to Norway, converted to a passenger ferry and renamed Sunnhordland; Sold to the Kristina Cruise Line in Finland and renamed Kristina Brahe. Fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 640 t; Length 180' 6"; Beam 33'; Draft 9' 8"; Speed 15k; Complement 100; Armament one 3"/50 dual purpose mount, three 40mm mounts, five 20mm mounts, two dct, four dcp, two dcp (hh); Propulsion two 1,800bhp General Motors 12-567A diesel engines, Falk single reduction gear,
two shafts.

Click On Image
For Full Size Image		 Size Image Description Source
HMS Kilchernan (BEC 4)
Kilchernan 30k c. 1943
Line drawing of HMS Kilchernan		 Raimo A. Wirrankoski
Finland
PCE-830 75k c. October 1943
In the St. Lawrence river en route from Chicago, IL to Bermuda
Photo from Allied Escort Ships of World War II by Peter Elliott		 Krlicbegovic Edib
Bosnia & Hercegovina
M/V Sunnhordland
Sunnhordland 74k c. 1949
Line drawing of Sunnhordland		 Raimo A. Wirrankoski
Finland
Sunnhordland 65k Sunnhordland Raimo A. Wirrankoski
Finland
M/V Kristina Brahe
Kristina Brahe 80k c. 1985
Line drawing of Kristina Brahe		 Raimo A. Wirrankoski
Finland
Kristina Brahe 95k Kristina Brahe Raimo A. Wirrankoski
Finland
Kristina Brahe 170k c. August 1977
Helsinki, Finland		 Gerhard L. Mueller-Debus
Frankfurt a.M., Germany
PCE-830

After World War II, seven of the surplus British "Kil Class" PCE's were bought by Norwegian shipping interests for passenger and ferry service. The hull conversions were easy and inexpensive and the vessels were highly profitable. Some are still in service today.

The PCE-830 was built by the Pullman Standard Car Company in Chicago, IL and launched on the 13th June of 1943. She received a direct commission into the Royal Navy and spent her war years homeported in Gibraltar performing convoy and patrol duties along the western African coast. Decommissioned in 1947, she was sold to Norwegian interests and converted into a small cruise ship. Sailing under the Norwegian flag, she was renamed the M/S Sunnbordland and for many years cruised the fjords between Bergen and Stavanger, Norway.

In 1974, she was bought by the Partanen family of Kotka, Finland who extensively renovated and upgraded the vessel including a complete engine room overhaul. She was renamed the M/S Kristina Brahe.

As of August 1997, she is still sailing under the Partanen family flag. She has two restaurants, a dance floor, a sun deck and a duty free shop aboard. With 64 cabins, she has a passenger capacity of 80 and a crew of 24. Their venue is operatic oriented cruises in the Saimaa Canal on the border between Finland
and Russia.

R. W. Daly PC-1181
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
Patrol Craft Sailors Association
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