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Gunboat Photo Archive

USS Surprise (PG 63)



Surprise call sign:
Nan - Baker - Fox - George

ex-HMS Heliotrope (K 03)



Surprise served the Navies of Great Britain, the United States, Taiwan and The Peoples Republc of China.
British Flower Class Corvette/Temptress Class Patrol Gunboat: Laid down in 1940 by John Crown and Sons Ltd., Sunderland, England for the French Navy but taken over by Great Britian with the fall of France; Launched 5 June 1940 as HMS Heliotrope (K 03); Transferred to the U.S. Navy at Hull, England 24 March 1942 and commissioned the same day as USS Surprise (PG-63); Decommissioned 20 August 1945 at Chatham, England; Returned to the Royal Navy 26 August 1945; Struck from the Naval Register 17 September 1945; Served in the British merchant service as Heliolock in 1946; Sold to Taiwan in 1947 and renamed Ziang Teh; Fell into the hands of the Communist Chinese and renamed Lin I. Fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 1,118 t; Length 205' 2"; Beam 33'; Draft 14' 7"; Speed 16.5 kts; Complement 87; Armament one 4"/50 gun mount, one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm guns, two dct and four dcp; Propulsion two 225psi Scotch boilers, one 2,750iph Northeastern Marine Engine Co. verticle triple expansion engine, one shaft.

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For Full Size Image		 Size Image Description Source
Surprise 104k 19 May 1944 Hyper War U.S. Navy in WWII
Surprise 63k 1 July 1944
Just before entering a fjord crossing the Arctic Circle in Greenland. George Schoelles, GM3/c is in the lower portion of the photo on the Hedgehog mount.		 George Schoelles
View the Surprise (PG-63)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
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