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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
Photo Archive
Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Amherst (PCE[R]-853)
ex-PCE(R)-853



Amherst call sign:
November - Xray - Lima - Golf


Amherst served the Navies of the United States, South Vietnam and the Philippines.



Datu Marikudo call sign:
Delta - Uniform - Papa - Foxtrot
PCE(R)-848 Class Patrol Craft Escort (Rescue): Laid down 16 November 1943 by the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co., Chicago, Ill; Launched, 18 March 1944; Commissioned USS PCE(R)-853, 15 June 1944 at New Orleans, LA; Decommissioned in October 1945 at Green Cove, FL.; Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet; Recommissioned, 28 November 1950; Named Amherst 15 February 1956; Decommissioned, 6 February 1970; Struck from the Navy Register 3 June 1970 and transferred to South Vietnam as Van Kiep II (HQ 14); Escaped to the Philippines after fall of South Vietnam and renamed BRP Datu Marikudo (PS 23). Fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 903 t; Length 184' 6"; Beam 33' 1"; Draft 9' 5"; Speed 15.7k; Complement 99; Armament one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 40mm gun mounts, two dct, two dcp Propulsion two 1,800 bhp General Motors 12-567A diesel engines, Falk single reduction gear, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail
for full size image		 Size Image Description Source
USS PCE(R)-853
PCE(R)-853 109k After launching. William Boynton
PCE(R)-853 109k Cover of commissioning pamplet. William Boynton
PCE(R)-853 109k Inside page of commissioning pamplet. William Boynton
PCE(R)-853 109k Inside page of commissioning pamplet. William Boynton
PCE(R)-853 109k Photo caption reads: "Lt. Boynton coaches Rear Admiral Anderson on operating the blinker signal on the bridge."
Photo from a Pullman Company magazine		 William Boynton
PCE(R)-853 54k . -
PCE(R)-853 66k . -
PCE(R)-853 63k c. 1944. Tom Kermen
PCE(R)-853 108k c. March/June 1945
Kerama Retto, Okinawa
Photo from the book, "The Escort Carriers in Action"		 William Boynton
USS Amherst (PCE[R] 853)
PCE(R)-853 64k c. 1960s Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
PCE(R)-853 165k Detroit, MI. c. 1963 Harold Pfrender
Van Kiep II (HQ 14)
PCE(R)-853 90k . Bill Toohey
RR1 Box 240
Clinton, Illinois 61727
BRP Datu Marikudo (PS 23)
G-63 257k c. October 2007
Cavite City, Philippines
Romblon (PG 63), ex-PGM-41 inboard of Agusan (PG 61), ex-PGM-39. Datu Marikudo is in
the background		 Edison Sy
View the Amherst (PCE[R]-853)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
Patrol Craft Sailors Association
"PC Patrol Craft of World War II"
by William J. Veigele, Ph.D., USNR, Ret. PC-793
Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Ship Index Back to the Patrol Craft Escort (Rescue) - (PCE[R]) Photo Index
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