USS Edgar G. Chase (DE-16)

Career (United States)
Name: USS Edgar G. Chase (DE-16)
Laid down: 14 March 1942
Launched: 26 September 1942 as HMS Burges (BDE-16)
Commissioned: 20 March 1943 as USS Edgar G. Chase (DE-16)
Decommissioned: 16 October 1945
Struck: 1 November 1945
Fate: Sold for scrap on 18 March 1947
General characteristics
Class and type:Evarts class destroyer escort
Displacement:1,140 (standard), 1,430 tons (full)
Length:283 ft 6 in (86.41 m) (waterline), 289 ft 5 in (88.21 m) (overall))
Beam:35 ft 2 in (10.72 m)
Draft:11 ft 0 in (3.35 m) (max)
Propulsion:
Speed:21 kn (39 km/h)
Range:4,150 nm
Complement:15 officers, 183 enlisted
Armament:3 × 3 in/50 cal Mk 22 dual purpose guns (1x3), 4 × 1.1 in/75 cal Mk 2 AA guns (1x4), 9 × Oerlikon 20 mm Mk 4 AA cannons, 1 × Hedgehog Projector Mk 10 (144 rounds), 8 × Mk 6 depth charge projectors, 2 × Mk 9 depth charge tracks

USS Edgar G. Chase (DE-16) was an Evarts-class "short-hull" destroyer escort in the service of the United States Navy named after Edgar Griffith Chase, executive officer of a destroyer lost at Guadalcanal in 1942.

Edgar G. Chase was launched on 26 September 1942 by Mare Island Navy Yard, Solano County, California as HMS Burges (BDE-16); sponsored for British Lend-Lease by Mrs. Ernest H. Wichels, but retained by the USN and assigned the name Edgar G. Chase on 19 February 1943; and commissioned 20 March 1943, Lieutenant Commander J. J. Morony in command.

Service history

World War II

Edgar G. Chase reported to the Submarine chaser Training Center at Miami, Florida, 4 June 1943, and for the next year trained student officers and patrolled off Florida. After a voyage in August 1944 from Norfolk, Virginia, to Recife, Brazil, screening Tripoli, and returning with Solomons. Edgar G. Chase sailed from New York on 19 September with a slow-moving convoy for England. With bad weather, the passage took a month; she got back to Norfolk on 22 November.

Edgar G. Chase made three voyages as convoy escort from New York and Norfolk to Oran from 19 December 1944 – 30 May 1945.

On 20 July, she returned to Miami, Florida, and her original training duty with the Small Craft Training Center.

Post-War

She arrived at Charleston, South Carolina on 9 September and was decommissioned there on 16 October 1945, being sold for scrap on 18 March 1947.

Awards

American Campaign Medal
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links