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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
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HMS Kilchrenan (BEC 4)
ex-HMS Kilchrenan (Z 04)
ex-PCE-830
ex-PC-830


PCE-830 was transferred to Great Britain.
PCE-827 Class Patrol Craft Escort:

  • Laid down 24 December 1942 as PC-830 by the Pullman Standard Car Co., Chicago, IL
  • Reclassified PCE-830 in April 1943
  • Launched 13 June 1943
  • Transferred to Great Britain 31 August 1943 and named HMS Kilchrenan (Z 04)
  • Reclassified BEC-4
    Transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission for disposal in November 1946
  • 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
  • Sold in August 2010 to the Saimaa Travel Network, Ltd. of Finland and renamed Brahe
  • Sold in November 2016 to HSD Sunnhordland AS of Stord, Norway and renamed Sunnhordland.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 640 t.
  • Length 180' 6"
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 9' 8"
  • Speed 15 kts.
  • Complement 100
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, three 40mm mounts, five 20mm mounts, two depth charge tracks, four depth charge projectors and two depth charge projector (hedgehogs)
  • Propulsion: Two 900bhp General Motors 12-567A diesel engines (Replaced with two 4T DM Caterpillar diesel engines in 1985), Falk single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    HMS Kilchrenan (BEC 4)
    Kilchernan 30k c. 1943
    Line drawing of HMS Kilchrenan    		 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
    MS Sunnhordland
    Sunnhordland 74k c. 1949
    Line drawing of Sunnhordland    		 Raimo A. Wirrankoski
    Finland
    Sunnhordland 65k Sunnhordland
    MS Kristina Brahe
    Kristina Brahe 80k c. 1985
    Line drawing of Kristina Brahe    		 Raimo A. Wirrankoski
    Finland
    Kristina Brahe 95k Kristina Brahe
    Kristina Brahe 170k c. August 1977
    Helsinki, Finland    		 Gerhard L. Mueller-Debus
    Frankfurt a.M., Germany
    Kristina Brahe 104k 2007
    Finland    		 Bjørn Andersen
    Kristina Brahe 372k 26 June 2008
    Savonlinna Harbor, Finland
    Photo by MPorciusCato    		 Robert Hurst
    MS Brahe
    Brahe 269k . Martikainen Pekka
    Brahe 84k Ships original compass still in operation
    Brahe 118k
    Brahe 356 c. July 2015
    Kiel Canal, Germany.    		 Gerhard Muller-Debus
    MS Sunnhordland
    PCE-830/Sunnhordland 113k c. November 2016
    Leirvik harbor, Norway
    Photograph by Harald Sætre    		 Joe Radigan
    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
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