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NavSource Online: Patrol Craft Escort
Photo Archive

HMS Kilbirne (BEC 1)
ex-PCE-827
ex-PC-827

PCE-827 was transferred to Great Britain.

PCE-827 Class Patrol Craft Escort:

Laid down 14 October 1942 as PC-827 by the Pullman Standard Car Co., Chicago, IL

Reclassified as PCE-827 in April 1943

Launched 2 May 1943

Completed 14 July 1943 and transferred to the Royal Navy

Commissioned HMS Kilbirne (BEC 1), 16 July 1943

Laid up in reserve in June 1945 at Sheerness, Kent, United Kingdom

Transferred in November 1946 to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission for disposal

Returned to U.S. custody 10 December 1946

Struck from the Navy Register in 1947

Sold in 1947 to Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskab of Stavanger, Norway, rebuilt as a coastal passenger ship and renamed Haugesund

Sold in 1973 to Libera Navigazione Lauro S.A.S. of Naples, Italy and renamed Sicilia Ponte

Sold in 1982 to Fila Societa per Azioni, Italy and renamed Tucalif

Scrapped in Italy in August 1997.

Specifications:

Displacement 640 t.

Length 180' 6"

Beam 33'

Draft 9' 8"

Speed 15 kts.

Complement 100

Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose mount, three 40mm mounts, five 20mm mounts, two depth charge racks, four depth charge projectors, and two depth charge projectors (hedgehogs)

Propulsion: Two 900bhp General Motors 12-567A diesel engines, Falk single reduction gear, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description	Source
PCE-827
	96kb	c. April 1943 Line drawing of PCE-827 class as conceived with two 3"/50s, three 20mm guns, a Hedgehog, four K-guns, and two depth charge racks. There is no stack Line drawing by A. D. Baker, III from U.S. Small Combatants: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman	Robert Hurst
	134kb	PCE-827 ready for launching, at the Pullman Standard Car Co. Yard, Chicago, Illinois, on 2 May 1943 National Archives photo 19-N-44446	Mike Green
	168k	2 May 1943 Launching	Richard Sims
	175k	2 May 1943 Being tended to after launching Photo courtesy of "Fighting Fleets 1943" by Critchell Rimington, Associate Member United States Naval Institute	Tommy Trampp
	375k	Article from the 8 May 1943 issue of Railway Age Magazine
	68k	16 February 1945 Newspaper banner of the the Pullman-Standard Log, Calumet Harbor Shipyard, depicting images of the PCE-827
HMS Kilbirne (BEC 1)
	152k	c. July 1943 Chicago, IL Sublieutenant John Barnes Leddy (circled on the right) Photo from the collection of Jack (John Barnes) Leddy	Tommy Trampp
	175k	HMS Kilbirne (BEC 1/ex-PCE-827) off Chicago, Illinois, July 1943, as commissioned National Archives photos 19-N-47844, 19-N-47846 and19-N-47848	Mike Green
	189k
	206k
	516k	c. 1943 U.S. Navy photo	Joe Radigan
	216kb	c. 1944 Line drawing of PCE-827 class as completed for the Royal Navy Line drawing by A. D. Baker, III from U.S. Small Combatants: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman	Robert Hurst
MV Haugesund
	98k	.	Lauri Kervinen Finland
	110k	.	Lauri Kervinen Finland
	83kb	Undated post card Photo from Fjordferjer i Norge (Fjord ferries in Norway)	Tommy Trampp
	82kb	Photo from Fjordferjer i Norge (Fjord ferries in Norway) from the collection of H. Carl, Bergen, Norway
	82kb	Undated post card Photo from Fjordferjer i Norge (Fjord ferries in Norway)
MV Sicilia Ponte
	155kb	c. 1980 Naples, Italy Photo from naviearmatori.net	Tommy Trampp
MV Tucalif
	49k		Hugo C. Lütcherath Bergen, Norway
	103kb	Photo by Pieter Inpijn from Fjordferjer i Norge (Fjord ferries in Norway)	Tommy Trampp
	152kb	c. 1997 Salerno, Italy Photo by Leo Johannes	Tommy Trampp