USS Emporia (PF-28)

Career (United States)
Name: USS Emporia (PG-136)
Namesake: Emporia, Kansas
Reclassified: PF-28, 15 April 1943
Builder: Walter Butler Shipbuilding Company, Superior, Wisconsin
Launched: 30 August 1943
Sponsored by: Mrs. George M. Barnaby
Commissioned: 7 October 1944
Decommissioned: 14 March 1946
Fate: sold to French Navy, 26 March 1947
Career (France)
Name: Le Verrier (F716)
Acquired: 26 March 1947
Reclassified: F716, c. 1952
Fate: Scrapped, 1958
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

USS Emporia (PF-28), a Tacoma-class frigate, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Emporia, Kansas.

Emporia (PF-28) was launched on 30 August 1943 at the Walter Butler Shipbuilding Company in Superior, Wisconsin, sponsored by Mrs. George M. Barnaby; placed in service between 12 and 22 June 1944 for passage to Houston, Texas; and commissioned on 7 October 1944, with Lieutenant Commander L. Anderson, USCGR, in command.

Service history

Emporia arrived at NS Argentia, Newfoundland, on 3 December 1944 to begin the vitally important duty of relaying weather reports from stations at sea between Newfoundland and Bermuda. Operating primarily in northern latitudes, she accumulated data essential to planning the movement of ships and aircraft throughout the Atlantic. After the close of the war, she continued this duty to aid the movement of troops home from Europe.

On 22 August 1946, Emporia arrived at New Orleans, Louisiana, where on 14 March 1946 she was decommissioned, and immediately recommissioned as a ship of the United States Coast Guard. She was again decommissioned on 28 August 1946, and sold to France on 26 March 1947 for continued weather patrol service. Renamed Le Verrier, she was scrapped in 1958.

References

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

External links