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NavSource Online: Frigate Photo Archive

New Bedford (PF-71)

Call sign:
Nan - Zebra - Zebra - Jig

ex-PG-179

Tacoma Class Patrol Frigate:

(MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) Originally authorized as Patrol Gunboat, PG-179

Reclassified as a Patrol Frigate, PF-71, 15 April 1943

Laid down 2 October 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract by the Leathem D. Smith Shipyard, Sturgeon Bay, WI

Launched 29 December 1943

Placed in commission 17 July 1944 and ferried to Houston, Texas for completion and fitting out

Commissioned USS New Bedford (PF-71), 18 November 1944

Decommissioned 24 May 1946 at Seattle, WA

Sold for scrap 16 November 1947 to Zidell Machinery and Supply Co. of Portland, Oregon.

Specifications:

Displacement 1,430 t.

Length 303' 11"(oa)

Beam 37' 6"

Draft 13' 8"

Speed 20.3 kts.

Complement 176

Armament: Three 3"/50 dual purpose mounts (For those frigates fitted out for weather patrol duty, the after 3-inch mount was removed and a weather balloon hanger was added aft), two twin 40mm

mounts, nine 20mm mounts, one Hedgehog depth charge projector, eight depth charge projectors, and two depth charge tracks

Propulsion: Two 3-drum express boilers, two 5,500ihp Diamond Iron Works engines, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
New Bedford (PF 71)
	85k		Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
USS New Bedford (PF 71)
	220k	c. 1944 Courtesy of Commander D. J. Robinson, 1976 Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 79080	Mike Green
New Bedford (PF 71)
	282k	4 April 1948 Gulfport (PF 20), New Bedford (PF 71), and Orlando (PF 99) being dismantled at Zidell yard in Portland, Oregon. The hull in the rear is that of Roi (CVE 103)	Dave Schroeder and John Chiquoine Photo added 8 October 2020

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships History: The USS New Bedford (PF-71) was built by the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Company of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and was launched there 29 December 1943. She was towed down the Mississippi River and ferried to Houston, Texas, for completion and fitting out. She was commissioned 18 November 1944 under the command of LCDR J. S. Muzzy, USCG. She proceeded to Bermuda on 6 December 1944, for a month's shakedown exercises, returning to Philadelphia 12 January 1945 for post-shakedown availability.

Departing New York on 6 February 1945 the New Bedford proceeded to Oran escorting her first trans-Atlantic convoy which put safely into Oran on 23 February. On 3 March the frigate joined the anti-submarine screen of a west bound convoy, arriving Boston 20 March. She next sailed to Hampton Roads, Virginia to pick up an east bound convoy. She departed Hampton Roads 8 April and arrived at Oran on 24 April. She made her final westbound passage on 2 May and arrived at Boston on 19 May. She was then converted for duty as a weather ship while on an availability that lasted until 31 July 1945.

She was assigned to weather patrol in the Pacific and sailed from Boston on 31 July. The war ended as she was en route from the Canal Zone to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived 27 August 1945. Three days later she departed for Guam. For the next six months the New Bedford stood regular weather station patrols, returning to Guam, her home base, only long enough to fuel, provision and afford a period of recreation for the crew. The weather patrols were, for the most part, dull and tiring. Violent tropical storms sometimes beat her unmercifully as she stood her station. Once a Japanese destroyer on a peaceful reparation mission was sighted.

The frigate arrived at San Francisco on 10 March 1946 and then proceeded onto Seattle. She was decommissioned there on 24 May 1946.

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