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NavSource Online:
Motor Gunboat/Patrol Gunboat Photo Archive

PGM-30
ex-PC-1566



Call sign:
Nan - Item - Victor - Uncle
PGM-9 Class Motor Gunboat:

  • Laid down 29 May 1944 as PC-1566 by the Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Co., Sturgeon Bay, WI
  • Launched 12 August 1944 and sponsored by Mrs. Anastasia Carborwoski
  • It was customary for L. D. Smith to launch all of its vessels on a Saturday so that all the towns people could attend and the high school band could play during the event. Most ships are launched by
    breaking a bottle of champagne over the bow but because Wisconsin is the Dairy State they used a bottle of milk
  • Reclassified as a Motor Gunboat, PGM-30, 16 August 1944
  • Commissioned PGM-30, 27 December 1944 at New Orleans, LA
  • Her shake down cruise was to the Subchaser Training Center (SCTC) in Miami. After a month at SCTC, she received her orders, as all other PGMs, to report to Pearl Harbor for duty in the Pacific
  • The PGM conversion was originally designed to work with the barge busting PT boats as added firepower but with a designed top speed of 20 knots they couldn't keep up with the PT boats. They were
    assigned to the mine sweeper units to explode or sink any mines the sweepers could sweep up. The PGM-30 was reported to have destroyed over 212 mines. Of the 24 PC/PGM conversions, 16 PGMs worked with the minesweepers during the Okinawa operations and later clearing the mine fields around the Japanese home lands
  • PGM-30 was awarded four battle stars for these operations
  • On VJ Day she was working with a minesweeping flotilla off the southern coast of Japan preparing for the home land invasion
  • Struck from the Naval Register 13 December 1946
  • Transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal 7 April 1947
  • Sold 10 April 1947
  • Fate unknown.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 295 t.
  • Length 173' 8"
  • Beam 23'
  • Draft 10' 10"
  • Speed 20 kts.
  • Complement 65
  • Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, one twin 40mm gun mount, six 20mm guns, one twin .50 cal. machine gun, and one 60mm mortar
  • Propulsion: Two 1,440bhp General Motors 16-278A diesel engines, Farrel-Birmingham single reduction gear, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    PC-1566
    PGM-30 132k Launching Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
    PGM-30
    PGM-30 111k Port Arthur, TX
    Believed to be PGM-30 tied up at the Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Inc., pier    		 Jim Swank
    PGM-30 98k
    Commanding Officers
    01LT Robert L. Whitman, USNR27 December 1944 - 1945
    Courtesy Joe Radigan
    There is no DANFS history available for PGM-30
    Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
    Patrol Craft Sailors Association
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back to the Patrol Craft/Gunboat/Submarine Chaser Ship Index Back to the Submarine Chaser (PC) Photo Index Back to the Motor Gunboat (PGM) Photo Index
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    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by Tom Bateman
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