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Gunboat Photo Archive

USS Brisk (PG 89)



Brisk call sign:
Nan - George - Dog - Baker

ex-HMS Flax (K 284)

British Flower Class Corvette/Action Class Patrol Gunboat:

  • Laid down as HMS Flax (K 284) by Kingston Shipbuilding, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
  • Launched 15 June 1942
  • Acquired by the U.S. Navy 5 December 1942
  • Commissioned USS Brisk (PG-89), 6 December 1942
  • Attacked German submarine U-732, 1 August 1943, driving her away from Guantanamo-bound convoy NG 376
  • Decommissioned 9 October 1945, and placed in reserve at Charleston, SC
  • Struck from the Naval Register 24 October 1945
  • Transferred to the War Shipping Administration 18 October 1946 and sold
  • Renamed Ariana in 1952, Arvida Bay in 1955 and Zaida in 1963
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1375 t.
  • Length 205'
  • Beam 33'
  • Draft 14' 7"
  • Speed 16.5 kts.
  • Complement 90
  • Armament: Two 3"/50 dual purpose mounts, two 20mm guns, two depth charge tracks, four depth charge projectors, and one hedgehog depth charge projector
  • Propulsion: Two 3-drum express boilers, 2,750ihp vertical triple expansion Canadian Vickers steam engine, one shaft.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Flower Class Corvette 168k "Escort Vessel (Corvette) - (Flower Class) - With Extended Forecastle, Increased Sheer, & Fuller Lines Fwd"
    U.S. Navy preliminary design plan, copied from Smith Dock Co., Ltd., Drawing No. 232. This plan, dated April 1941, is for a modification of the British "Flower" class corvette. Scale of the original drawing is not given, but appears to be 1/16" = 1'. The original plan is in the 1939-1944 "Spring Styles Book" held by the Naval
    Historical Center
    U.S. Navy photo S-511-30    		 Naval Historical Center
    Brisk 251k Replacement photo: Photographed during World War II
    Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1974
    U.S. Navy photo NH 79084    		 Original photo: Dave Shirlaw
    Replacement photo: Naval History and Heritage Command
    Replacement photo added 2 February 2021
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Norman B. Denel, USNR6 December 1942 - 1943
    02LT John I. Mingay, USNR1943 - 1943
    03LTJG Charles V. Riley, USNR1943
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Joe Radigan
    View the Brisk (PG-89)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
    Back to the Main Photo Index Back to the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Ship Index Back to the Patrol Gunboat (PG) Photo Index
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    This page created by Gary P. Priolo and maintained by Tom Bateman
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