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NavSource Online:
Motor Gunboat/Patrol Gunboat Photo Archive
Courtesy of Mike Smolinski

Ready (PG-87)
ex-PGM-87

Asheville Class Gunboat:

  • Laid down 10 June 1965 as PGM-87 at Tacoma Boatbuilding Co., Tacoma, WA
  • Reclassified as a Patrol Gunboat, PG-87, 1 April 1967
  • Launched 12 May 1967
  • Commissioned USS Ready (PG-87), 6 January 1968
  • Decommissioned 1 October 1977, struck from the Navy Register and transferred to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy as a training vessel
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 240 t. (lt), 285 t. (fl)
  • Length 164' 6"
  • Beam 24'
  • Draft 5' 2" (lt), 9' 6" (fl)
  • Speed 40 kts.
  • Complement 37
  • Armament: One 3"/50 gun mount, one 40mm gun mount and two .50 cal. machine guns
  • Propulsion: CODOG (Combination Diesel or Gas Turbine) two 12 cylinder 725hp Cummins diesel engines, General Electric model 7 LM 1500 gas turbine engine, two controllable pitch propellers. The
    CODOG system allows for diesel propulsion up to about 12 - 14 knots and marine gas turbine propulsion for speeds in excess of 35 knots.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Ready/Antelope 129k Souda Bay Crete
    Ready with Antelope (PG 86)    		 CAPT David Spiggs, USN via
    Patrol Gunboat Association
    Terry W. McManuels, ETCM(SW), Ret.
    Ready 190k U.S. Navy photo Tom Langford
    Ready 122k BMCS Richard Miller, USNR, Ret.
    Ready 470k Shown fitted with a Dutch Signaal radar (Mark 87) fire-control system. No gun mount radar dish is fitted to the 3"/50 mount. The rest of the battery was standard: a single 40mm gun right aft and two single .50 cal. machine guns
    U.S. Navy photo from U.S. Small Combatants: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman    		 Robert Hurst
    Ready 79k U.S. Navy photo from the March 1968 edition of All Hands magazine Joe Radigan
    Ready 66k c. early 1970s
    Mediterranean Sea
    Photo taken from the Soviet Riga class frigate Pantera    		 Alexey Makovey
    Ready 148k c. April 1970
    Cua Lon River, South Vietnam
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo K-83562 from the National Archives    		 Robert Hurst
    Photo added 20 March 2022
    Antelope 235k c. Mid-70s
    Antelope (PG 86) or Ready silhouetted against the sun, with RIM-67 Standard launchers raised
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 88422-KN    		 Robert Hurst
    Photo added 20 March 2022
    Antelope 71k Ready, one of the Navy's new jet-powered gunboats, poses with her twin sister, USS Antelope (PG 86)
    U.S.Navy photo from the February 1970 edition of All Hands magazine    		 Joe Radigan
    Ready 371k 4 February 1973
    Monte Carlo    		 Carlo Martinelli
    PG-86/87/98/100 68k 6 December 1976
    Barcelona, Spain
    Ready in foreground, inboard with Grand Rapids (PG 98) outboard. Background inboard is Douglas (PG 100) with Antelope inboard. Note that Antelope and Ready are fitted with Mk-87 fire control systems, with antenna inside domes, whereas Grand Rapids and Douglas have a Mk-63 fire control system, with an SPG-50 radar antenna on
    the gun mounts    		 Fabio Peņa
    Ready 69k
    PG-86/87/98/100 48k
    Antelope 143k Decommissioning program Tom Langford
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Paul Telis Souval, USN6 January 1968 - 12 September 1969
    02LT William Walter King, USN12 September 1969 - April 1971
    03LT David Brooks Robinson, USN - USNA Class of 1963
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1970), the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, two Navy Distinguished Service Medals (1993/1996), five Legion of Merits, the Bronze Star with Combat "V", the Meritorious Service Medal and the Purple Heart - Retired as
    Vice Admiral    		April 1971 - 20 April 1971
    04LT Edward Michael Vacin, USN20 April 1971 - 10 September 1971
    05LT John Scott Beachy, USN - USNA Class of 196610 September 1971 - 4 January 1975
    06LT Joseph W. Perrotta, Jr., USN4 January 1975 - 14 April 1977
    07LT William Joseph McSorley, III, USN14 April 1977 - 1 October 1977
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves and Joe Radigan
    View the Ready (PG-87)
    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 Motor Gunboat (PGM) Photo Index
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