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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
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Eunice (PCE 846)
ex-PCE-846
ex-PCE(R)-846



Call sign:
November - Xray - Bravo - Zulu


Eunice served the Navies of the United States and Ecuador.
PCE-842 Class Patrol Craft Escort:

  • Laid down 10 August 1943 as PCE(R)-846 by the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co., Chicago, IL
  • Reclassified as a Patrol Craft Escort, PCE-846
  • Launched, 20 December 1943
  • Commissioned USS PCE-846, 4 March 1944
  • Went down the Mississippi, convoy duty, Carribbean and east coast. Bermuda patrol and convoy North Atlantic, Africa and Gibraltar areas. After VE day, escorted German Submarine U-505 on War Bond Tour. Five days each
    in Norfolk, VA; Washington, DC; Philadelphia, PA and New York City. Then into shipyards for fire control systems, changing single 40mm guns to twin mounts, constructing aerographers shack on boat deck for inflation of
    radiosonde balloons. Five aerographers added to crew. New assignment was to Sea of Japan to send weather info to fleet command, preparing for invasion of Japan
  • Placed in service in August 1947 as a Naval Reserve Training vessel assigned to the 8th Naval District (New Orleans)
  • Named Eunice in February 1956
  • Transferred to Ecuador 29 November 1960 under the Military Assistance Plan and renamed Esmeraldes (E 03)
  • Struck from the Naval Register 31 March 1978
  • Permamently transferred to Ecuador 30 August 1978
  • Reclassified E-2 and P-21
  • Struck from the Ecuadorian Navy list in 1982
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 850 t.
  • Length 184' 6"
  • Beam 33' 1"
  • Draft 9' 5"
  • Speed 15.7 kts.
  • Complement 99
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, three twin 40mm mounts, four 20mm mounts, four depth charge projectors, one depth charge projector (hedgehog) and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 1,800bhp General Motors 12-567A diesel engines, Falk single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PCE-846
    Eunice 71k 20 December 1943
    Launching    		 George Harper
    Eunice 380k The eleven U.S. Navy personnel, Captain and Crew [plus civilian river pilot and shipyard personnel, not shown] that sailed the ship to New Orleans
    Photo from the collection of Frank McBride SK3/c
    USS PCE-846
    Eunice 428k 4 March 1944 Deck Logs George Harper
    Eunice 300k
    Eunice 137k In the Atlantic
    Eunice 79k In the Pacific
    Eunice 101k In the Pacific. The twin 40mm mounts were installed at Staten Island, NY for deployment to the Pacific
    Eunice 114k In the Pacific. Circling in a 3-mile diameter on rescue/weather patrol
    Eunice 89k
    Eunice 71k In the Pacific. Retreiving a mail sack dropped from an R5D aircraft
    Eunice 112k Rescue practice with the whale boat
    Eunice 104k
    Eunice 101k
    Eunice 82k
    Eunice 89k One on duty and three loafers
    Eunice 70k San Francisco Bay
    Shows the special shack on the boat deck for inflation of the radiosonde balloons.
    Eunice 1098k c. 1944
    St. George Harbor, Bermuda
    Inboard of PCE-847
    Courtesy of Leonard Frost
    Eunice 262k 9 - 10 May 1945 Deck Logs
    Eunice 248k
    Eunice 61k c. 1951
    New Orleans, LA    		 Lynna Kay Shuffield
    Eunice 100k c. 1952/1953 Warren R. Black
    Esmeraldes (E 03)
    Eunice 50k c. 1965 Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Frank D. Andruss, USNR4 May 1944 - 9 May 1945
    02LT Francis D. Franklin, USNR9 May 1945
    03LT Robert Lee Adams, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 19511959 - 29 November 1960
    04LT James Eugene Woolway, USN.
    Courtesy of Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and George Harper
    There is no DANFS History currently available for Eunice (PCE-846)
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Patrol Craft Sailors Association
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back to the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Index Back to the Patrol Craft Escort (PCE) Photo Index
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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