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NavSource Online: Eagle-Class Patrol Craft
Photo Archive

PE-56
ex-Eagle No. 56



Call sign:
Nan - Item - Charlie - Jig


PE-56 sank 23 April 1945
Eagle Class Patrol Craft: Laid down 25 March 1919 by the Ford Motor Co., Rouge Plant, Detroit, Mich.; Launched, 15 August 1919; Commissioned USS Eagle No. 56, 26 October 1919; Designated PE-56, 17 July 1920; Torpedoed 23 April 1945 by the German submarine U-853 off Portland, ME.

Specifications: Displacement 710 t.; Length 200' 9"; Beam 25' 9"; Draft 13' 6"; Speed 18.32 kts.; Complement 68; Armament one 4"/50 gun mount and two .50 cal. machine guns; Propulsion two Thorny-Craft Bureau Model 250 psi boilers, one 2,500 shp Poole geared turbine, Ford single reduction gear, one shaft.

Click On Image
For Full Size Image		 Size Image Description Source
PE-56 60k Photo from the March 2003 edition of Sea Classics Bob Daly/PC-1181
PE-56 Crew 128k The officers and crew of the USS Eagle muster on deck in a Maine harbor a month before the submarine chaser was sunk by a German U-boat in the closing days of World War II.
Associated Press photo
Read the story on the loss of PE-56 - "Historian Brings Honor in Tragedy"-		 Stanley C. Svec
View the PE-56
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway web site.
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 Ship Type Index Back to the Eagle-Class Patrol Craft (PE) Photo Index
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