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NavSource Online: Frigate Photo Archive

Belfast (PF-35)



Call sign:
Nan - Zebra - Uncle - Charlie

ex-PG-143


Belfast served the Navies of the United States and the Soviet Union
Tacoma Class Patrol Frigate:

  • (MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) Laid down 26 March 1943 as Patrol Gunboat, PG-143 under a Maritime Commission contract, by the Consolidated Steel Corp, Ltd., Wilmington, CA
  • Reclassified as a Patrol Frigate, PF-35, 15 April 1943
  • Launched 20 May 1943
  • Commissioned USS Belfast (PF-35), 24 November 1943
  • Decommissioned 11 July 1945 at Cold Bay, Alaska
  • Transferred 12 July 1945 under the Lend-Lease Program to the Soviet Union and reclassified EK-3
  • Ran aground 17 November 1948 during a storm off Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Siberia
  • Declared a total loss 14 November 1949
  • Refloated and repaired but never reported to the U.S. Navy
  • Struck from the U.S. Navy Register 31 January 1950
  • Reclassified 31 December 1952 as a non-self propelled submarine tender and named Samarga
  • Reclassified as a barracks ship PKZ-116, 27 December 1956
  • Scrapped 29 April 1960
  • Belfast was the only U.S. Patrol Frigate never returned.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,430 t. (lt), 2,415 t. (fl)
  • Length 303' 11"
  • Beam 37' 6"
  • Draft 13' 8"
  • Speed 20.3 kts.
  • Complement 214
  • Armament: Three 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts, two twin 40mm gun mounts, nine 20mm gun mounts, two depth charge tracks, eight depth charge projectors, and one depth charge projector (hedgehog)
  • Propulsion: Two 3-drum express boilers, two 5,500ihp J. Hendy Iron Works engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Belfast 250k Jeff DeWeese
    Commanding Officers
    01LCDR John Jenkins Hutson, Jr., USCG24 November 1943 - 1944
    02LT O. D. Rohlfs, Jr., USCGR12 July 1945
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Joe Radigan
    View the Belfast (PF 35)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
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