USS Lorain (PF-93)

	USS Covington (PF-56) (left) and USS Lorain (right) docked at New York City, 1946, when the ships were on loan to the United States Coast Guard.
History
United States
Name	USS Roanoke (PG-201)
Namesake	Roanoke, Virginia
Reclassified	PF-93, 15 April 1943
Builder	American Ship Building Company, Lorain, Ohio
Laid down	25 October 1943
Renamed	USS Lorain (PF-93), 7 February 1944
Namesake	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	Laplace (F13)
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	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 Lorain (PF-93), a Tacoma-class frigate, was the first commissioned ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lorain, Ohio.

Lorain (PF-93) was authorized as Roanoke (PG-201) and laid down as Roanoke (PF-93) under a United States 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.

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 Laplace (F-13). Disarmed a year later, she served as weather observation ship in the North Atlantic until sunk by a leftover World War II mine on 16 September 1950.

References

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

External links

Photo gallery of USS Lorain at NavSource Naval History
hazegray.org: USS Lorain