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NavSource Online: Frigate Photo Archive

Machias (PF 53)



Call sign:
November - Zulu - Whiskey - Yankee

ex-PG-161


Machias served the Navies of the United States, the Soviet Union and Japan.
Tacoma Class Patrol Frigate:

  • (MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) The second Machias was originally authorized as Patrol Gunboat, PG-161
  • Redesignated as a Patrol Frigate, PF-53, 15 April 1943
  • Laid down 8 May 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract by Froemming Brothers Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • Launched 22 August 1943
  • Commissioned USS Machias (PF-53), 29 March 1944
  • Decommissioned 12 July 1945 at Cold Harbor, Alaska
  • Transferred under the Lend-Lease Program 13 July 1945 to the Soviet Union and renamed EK-4
  • Assigned to the Pacific Fleet 23 July 1945
  • Participated in the Kurile Islands landing operation 18 August - 1 September 1945
  • Returned to U.S. custody in October 1949 at Yokosuka, Japan
  • Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Yokosuka
  • Transferred 14 January 1953 on loan to the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and renamed Nara (PF-2)
  • Reclassified PF-282, 1 September 1957
  • Struck From the Navy Register 1 December 1961
  • Transferred outright to Japan, 28 August 1962
  • Decommissioned 31 March 1966 and converted to a non-self propelled dockside trainer and reclassified YTE-3
  • Decommissioned 31 March 1969 and sold for scrap.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,430 t.
  • Length, 303' 11"(oa)
  • Beam 37' 6"
  • Draft 13' 8"
  • Speed 20.3 kts.
  • Complement 190
  • Armament: Three 3"/50 dual purpose gun mounts, two twin 40mm gun mounts, nine 20mm guns, one Hedgehog projector, eight Y-gun depth charge projectors and two depth charge tracks
  • Propulsion: Two 3-drum express boilers, two 5,500 iHP J. Hendy Iron Works steam engines, two shafts.
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Discription Source
    Machias (PF 53)
    Allentown 123k Post card, postmarked 14 November 1943, Milwaukee, WI Paul Petosky
    USS Machias (PF 53)
    Machias 67k At anchor at the time she was completed, circa March 1944. The original photograph has been annotated to identify SA and SL radar antennas mounted on the ship's foremast.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 64670    		 Naval Historical Center
    Machias 72k c. 1945 Robert Hurst
    EK-4
    Machias 12k c. 1945
    Line drawing    		 Tommy Trampp
    Nara (PF 2)
    Machias 57k Photo courtesy of Lieut-Commander G.R.G. Murray, RN from the 1959/1960 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships Robert Hurst
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Robert Theodore Alexander, USCG29 March 1944
    02LT H. C. Banna, USCGR12 July 1945
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    View the Machias (PF-53)
    DANFS History entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Website
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