USS Lorain (PF-93)

USS Lorain (PF-93), a Tacoma-class frigate, was the first commissioned ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lorain, Ohio.

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

USS Covington (PF-56) (left) and USS Lorain (PF-93) (right) docked at New York City, 1946, when the ships were on loan to the United States Coast Guard.
History
United States
Name: Roanoke
Namesake: City of Roanoke, Virginia
Reclassified: PF-93, 15 April 1943
Builder: American Ship Building Company, Lorain, Ohio
Laid down: 25 October 1943
Renamed: Lorain, 7 February 1944
Namesake: City of Lorain, Ohio
Launched: 18 March 1944
Sponsored by: Mrs. Fred Henderson
Commissioned: 15 January 1945
Decommissioned: 14 March 1946
Fate: Sold to France, 26 March 1947
France
Name: La Place
Acquired: 26 March 1947
Reclassified: F713, c. 1952
Fate: Sunk by a mine, 16 September 1950
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:

Construction

Lorain (PF-93) was authorized as Roanoke (PG-201) and laid down as Roanoke (PF-93) under a Maritime Commission contract by American Ship Building Company, Lorain, Ohio, 25 October 1943. She was renamed Lorain on 7 February 1944; launched on 18 March 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Fred Henderson; and commissioned at Baltimore, Maryland, on 15 January 1945, with Lieutenant Commander James G. Ramsay, Jr., USCGR, in command.

Service history

Lorain departed Baltimore on 28 January 1945 for Norfolk, Virginia, and Bermuda, where the Coast Guard-manned frigate underwent shakedown and training. After further training in Casco Bay, Maine, she sailed on 11 April for NS Argentia, Newfoundland, her base for weather patrols through the following summer. Operating out of Argentia and later Reykjavík, Iceland, she ranged the North Atlantic from the coastal waters of Greenland to waters north of the Azores, reporting vital meteorological data.

Lorain returned to Boston on 14 September, conducted a weather patrol off New England in late October, then sailed on 2 December for duty in the Caribbean. An escort run took her to Recife, Brazil, early in 1946, and after two weather patrols east of Bermuda, she returned to Boston on 7 March, and decommissioned there on 14 March 1946.

She was sold on 26 March 1947 to the French Navy and commissioned on the same day as La Place (F-13). Disarmed a year later, she served as weather observation ship in the North Atlantic. Shortly after midnight on 16 September 1950, La Place anchored offshore of St. Malo, France. A recent storm had freed a tethered German magnetic sea mine that was left over from World War II. The mine contacted the ship and exploded. La Place sank almost immediately and only 42 of her crew of 75 men were rescued.

Launch of USS Lorain at Lorain, Ohio, 18 March 1944

See also
  • List of Escorteurs of the French Navy

References


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