USS Grand Island (PF-14)

Career (United States)
Name:	USS Grand Island
Builder:	Kaiser Cargo, Inc., Richmond, California
Launched:	19 February 1944
Commissioned:	27 May 1944
Decommissioned:	21 May 1946
Struck:	1964
Fate:	Transferred to Cuba, 16 June 1947
Career (Cuba)
Name:	Maximo Gomez (F303)
Acquired:	16 June 1947
Fate:	Unknown
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 11 in (11.56 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 Grand Island (PF-14), a Tacoma-class frigate, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Grand Island, Nebraska.

Grand Island, a patrol frigate, was originally classified as PG-122 and launched by the Kaiser Cargo, Inc., shipyard in Richmond, California, on 19 February 1944 as PF-14, sponsored by Mrs. William Shackleton; and commissioned on 27 May 1944, with Lieutenant Commander H. L. Morgan in command.

Service history

After completing her shakedown cruise off the coast of southern California, Grand Island reported for duty with the 12th Naval District on 12 September 1944. She subsequently performed weather station and plane guard duty out of San Francisco, California, and participated in several training exercises with patrol forces on the West Coast. She also was engaged from time to time in antisubmarine escort duty. Grand Island departed San Francisco on 26 March 1946, arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, on 13 April 1946 via the Panama Canal Zone, and was turned over to the 6th Naval District for disposal. She was decommissioned on 21 May 1946 and was stricken from the Navy Register on 19 June.

Declared not essential to the defense of the United States, the frigate was turned over to the State Department Foreign Liquidation Corporation and finally transferred to Cuba on 16 June 1947, where she served as Maximo Gomez.

References

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

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Grand Island at NavSource Naval History
• hazegray.org: USS Grand Island