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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
Photo Archive

PCE(R)-853 Amherst


Contributed by Mike Smolinski


Amherst served the Navies of the United States, South Vietnam and the Philippines.

PCER-489 Class Patrol Craft Rescue Escort: Laid down, 16 November 1943 at Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co., Chicago, Ill; Launched, 18 March 1944; Commissioned USS PCE(R)-853, at New Orleans, LA, 15 June 1944; Decommissioned at Green Cove, Fla. October 1945; Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet; Recommissioned, 28 November 1950; Named Amherst, 15 February 1956; Decommissioned, 6 February 1970; Struck from the Naval Register, 3 June 1970; Transferred to South Vietnam, June 1970 and renamed Van Kiep II (HQ 14); Escaped to the Philippines after fall of South Vietnam and renamed Datu Marikudo (PS 23). Fate unknown.

Specifications: Displacement 903 t; Length 184' 6"; Beam 33' 1"; Draft 9' 5"; Speed 15.7k; Complement 99; Armament one dual purpose 3"/50 gun mount, two single 40mm Gun Mounts, two dct, two dcp; Propulsion two 1,800shp General Motors 12-567A diesel engines, two shafts.


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Size Image Description Source
PCE(R)-853 54k . -
PCE(R)-853 66k . -
PCE(R)-853 63k c. 1944. Tom Kermen
PCE(R)-853 165k Detroit, MI. c. 1963. Harold Pfrender

View the Amherst (PCE[R]-853)
DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site. The main archive for the DANFS Online Project.

Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation
Fleet Reserve Association
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
Patrol Craft Sailors Association
"PC Patrol Craft of World War II"
by William J. Veigele, Ph.D, USNR, Ret. PC-793

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