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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
	132k	Launching	Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
PGM-30
	111k	Port Arthur, TX Believed to be PGM-30 tied up at the Gulfport Boiler and Welding Works, Inc., pier	Jim Swank
	98k		Jim Swank