Tran Quang Khai (HQ-02) pierside at left, with her sister ships Tran Quoc Toan (HQ-06) (center) and Tran Binh Trong (HQ-05) (right) |
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| Career (South Vietnam) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | RVNS Tran Quang Khai (HQ-02) |
| Namesake: | Tran Quang Khai (1241–1294), a Trần Dynasty general |
| Builder: | Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, Washington |
| Laid down: | 6 June 1943 |
| Launched: | 15 January 1944 |
| Completed: | July 1944 |
| Acquired: | 1 January 1971 |
| Fate: | Fled to Philippines on collapse of South Vietnam April 1975 Formally ransferred to Republic of the Philippines 5 April 1976 |
| Notes: | Served as U.S. Navy seaplane tender USS Bering Strait (AVP-34) 1944-1946 Served as U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Bering Strait (WAVP-382), later WHEC-382, 1949-1971 Served as Philippine Navy frigate BRP Diego Silang (PF-9) 1976-1985 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Tran Quang Khai-class frigate |
| Displacement: | 1,766 tons (standard) 2,800 tons (full load) |
| Length: | 310 ft 9 in (94.72 m) (overall); 300 ft 0 in (91.44 m) waterline |
| Beam: | 41 ft 1 in (12.52 m) |
| Draft: | 13 ft 5 in (4.09 m) |
| Installed power: | 6,080 horsepower (4.54 megawatts) |
| Propulsion: | 2 x Fairbanks Morse 38D diesel engines |
| Speed: | approximately 18 knots (maximum) |
| Complement: | approximately 200 |
| Armament: | 1 × 5-inch/38-caliber (127-millimeter) dual-purpose gun 1 or 2 x 81-millimeter mortars in some ships[1] Several machine guns |
RVNS Tran Quang Khai[2] (HQ-02)[3] was a South Vietnamese frigate of the Republic of Vietnam Navy in commission from 1971 to 1975. She and her six sister ships were the largest South Vietnamese naval ships of their time.
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Tran Quang Khai was built in the United States by Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton, Washington, as the United States Navy Barnegat-class seaplane tender USS Bering Strait (AVP-34). Commissioned in July 1944, Bering Strait served in the Central Pacific during World War II and on occupation duty in Japan postwar. She was decommissioned in June 1946 and placed in reserve.
The U.S. Navy loaned Bering Strait to the United States Coast Guard, which commissioned her in 1949 as the Casco-class Coast Guard cutter USCGC Bering Strait (WAVP-382). Reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC-382 in 1966, she patrolled ocean stations in the Pacific Ocean, for nearly 22 years, reporting weather data and engaging in search-and-rescue and law-enforcement operations. During the Vietnam War, she served two tours off Vietnam, in 1967-1968 and in 1970.
After her antisubmarine warfare equipment had been removed, Bering Strait was transferred to South Vietnam on 1 January 1971 and was commissioned into the Republic of Vietnam Navy as the frigate RVNS Tran Quang Khai (HQ-02)[4] By mid-1972, six other former Casco-class cutters had joined her in South Vietnamese service. They were the largest warships in the South Vietnamese inventory, and their 5-inch (127-millimeter) guns were South Vietnam's largest naval guns. Tran Quang Khai and her sisters fought alongside U.S. Navy ships during the final years of the Vietnam War, patrolling the South Vietnamese coast and providing gunfire support to South Vietnamese forces ashore.
When South Vietnam collapsed at the end of the Vietnam War in late April 1975, Tran Quang Khai became a ship without a country. She fled to Subic Bay in the Philippines, packed with South Vietnamese refugees. On 22 May 1975 and 23 May 1975, a U.S. Coast Guard team inspected Tran Quang Khai and five of her sister ships, which also had fled to the Philippines in April 1975. One of the inspectors noted: "These vessels brought in several hundred refugees and are generally rat-infested. They are in a filthy, deplorable condition. Below decks generally would compare with a garbage scow."[5]
After Tran Quang Khai had been cleaned and repaired, the United States formally transferred her to the Republic of the Philippines on 5 April 1976.
The ship was commissioned into the Philippine Navy as frigate BRP Diego Silang (PF-9) on 5 April 1976. She was decommissioned in June 1985,[6] discarded in July 1990, and probably scrapped.[7]
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