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Gunboat Photo Archive

Surprise (PG 63)
ex-HMS Heliotrope (K 03)



Surprise call sign:
November - Bravo - Foxtrot - Golf



Surprise served the Navies of Great Britain and the United StatesChina.


British Flower Class Corvette/Temptress Class Patrol Gunboat: Built by John Crown and Sons Ltd., Sunderland, England for the French Navy but taken over 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 at Chatham, England 20 August 1945; 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 925 t; Length 205' 2"; Beam 33'; Draft 14' 7"; Speed 16.5 kts; Complement 87; Armament one 4" gun mount, one 3" gun mount, two 20mm guns, two dct and four dcp.
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Surprise 104k - Hyper War US Navy in WWII

View the Surprise (PG-63)
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
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