USS Bath (PF-55)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Bath.

History
United States
Name	USS Bath (PG-163)
Namesake	Bath, Maine
Reclassified	PF-55, 15 April 1943
Builder	Froemming Brothers, Inc., Milwaukee, and Pendleton Shipyards, New Orleans
Laid down	23 August 1943
Launched	14 November 1943
Sponsored by	Mrs. Fred R. E. Dean
Commissioned	9 September 1944
Decommissioned	12 July or 9 September 1945
Fate	transferred to the Soviet Navy, 13 July or 9 September 1945
Acquired	returned from Soviet Navy, 15 November 1949
Fate	transferred to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 13 December or 23 December 1953
Stricken	1 December 1961
History
Soviet Union
Name	EK-11
Acquired	13 July or 9 September 1945
Fate	Returned to United States, 15 November 1949
History
Japan
Name	JDS Maki (PF-298) or JDS Matsu (PF-6)
Acquired	by loan, 13 or 23 December 1953 permanent transfer, 28 August 1962
Decommissioned	31 March 1966
Renamed	YTE-9, 31 March 1966
In service	31 March 1966, as non-self-propelled pier-side training ship
Fate	sold for scrapping, 13 December 1971
General characteristics
Class and type	Tacoma-class frigate
Displacement	1,430 long tons (1,453 t) light 2,415 long tons (2,454 t) full
Length	303 ft 11 in (92.63 m)
Beam	37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Draft	13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
Propulsion	2 × 5,500 shp (4,101 kW) turbines 3 boilers 2 shafts
Speed	20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	190
Armament	• 3 × 3"/50 caliber guns (3×1) • 4 × 40 mm guns (2×2) • 9 × 20 mm guns (9×1) • 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar • 8 × Y-gun depth charge projectors • 2 × depth charge tracks

The second USS Bath (PF-55) was a United States Navy Tacoma-class frigate in commission from 1944 to 1945 which later served in the Soviet Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Construction and commissioning

Bath originally was authorized as a patrol gunboat with the hull number PG-163, but she was redesignated as a patrol frigate with the hull number PF-55 on 15 April 1943. She was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract as Maritime Commission Type T.S2-S2-AQ1 Hull 1480 on 23 August 1943 by Froemming Brothers, Inc., at Milwaukee. She was launched on 14 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Fred R. E. Dean, then moved in an incomplete state to New Orleans, where she was completed by Pendleton Shipyards. She was commissioned on 9 September 1944 with a United States Coast Guard crew and Commander John R. Stewart, USCG, in command.

Service history

World War II, 1944-1945

Bath departed New Orleans on 25 September 1944 and conducted her shakedown training out of Bermuda before proceeding to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she arrived on 1 November 1944 for post-shakedown repairs and alterations. Sea trials off Rockland, Maine, and further shipyard availability at Philadelphia followed before she departed the Delaware Capes on 30 December 1944 and proceeded to New York City to report for duty with Task Group 20.9 under the Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier.

Based at the Eastern Sea Frontier base at Tompkinsville, Staten Island, and attached to Escort Division 38, Bath departed on 6 January 1945 in the escort of a convoy bound for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and returned to New York on the 25 January 1945. She then operated out of Tompkinsville on antisubmarine barrier patrol through mid-May 1945, often in company with other patrol craft. She also kept approaching vessels from interfering with the convoy lanes into and out of New York.

Detached from this duty on 17 May 1945, Bath arrived at Ocean Weather Station 10 (at 36°00'N, 70°00'W) on 18 May 1945 to relieve destroyer escort USS Jack W. Wilke (DE-800) there, but was herself relieved the same day.

Returning to New York City, Bath received orders to the Pacific Ocean on 11 June 1945. Following repairs and alterations at the Mariners' Harbor shipyard of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation on Staten Island, Bath set out for the Pacific Theater of Operations on 14 July 1945, the day after agreements had been signed to transfer her to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease. She transited the Panama Canal on 22 July 1945 and reached San Pedro, California, on 30 July 1945. Proceeding on to Seattle, Bath departed for Siberia on 28 August 1945. She was decommissioned at the Soviet port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on 9 September 1945. Another source, however, reports that the transfer took place on 12 July 1945 at Cold Bay, Alaska.

Soviet Navy, 1945–1949

Bath was transferred to the Soviet Union at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on the day of her decommissioning. She served in the Soviet Navy as the patrol vessel EK-11 until 15 November 1949, when she was returned to the custody of the U.S. Navy at Yokosuka Naval Base at Yokosuka, Japan.

Japanese Navy, 1953–1971

Placed out of commission in reserve at Yokosuka, Bath remained inactive in Japan until loaned to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on either 13 or 23 December. Sources disagree on the name assigned to the former Bath. The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships reports that she was named Matsu, but other sources report her new name as Maki.

On 1 December 1961, the U.S. Navy struck Bath's name from the American Naval Vessel Register, and permanently transferred the ship to Japan on 28 August 1962. Decommissioned from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on 31 March 1966, the ship was renamed YTE-9 that day and placed in service as a non-commissioned pier-side training ship. She was sold to the Chin Ho Fa Steel and Iron Company, Ltd., of Taiwan on 13 December 1971 for scrapping.

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• NavSource Online: Frigate Photo Archive: Bath (PF 55) ex-PG-163