A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.
The Tacoma class was a class of 96 patrol frigates which served in the United States Navy during World War II and the Korean War. Originally classified as gunboats (PG), they were reclassified as patrol frigates (PF) on 15 April 1943. The class is named for its lead ship, Tacoma, a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) S2-S2-AQ1 design, which in turn was named for the city of Tacoma, Washington. Twenty-one ships were transferred to the British Royal Navy, in which they were known as Colony-class frigates, and twenty-eight ships were transferred under Lend-Lease to the Soviet Navy, where they were designated as storozhevoi korabl, during World War II. All Tacoma-class ships in US service during World War II were manned by United States Coast Guard crews. Tacoma-class ships were transferred to the United States Coast Guard and various navies post-World War II.
USNS Stalwart (T-AGOS-1) was a Modified Tactical Auxiliary General Ocean Surveillance Ship and the lead ship of her class.
The Asheville-class gunboats were a class of small warships built for the United States Navy in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis. The class is named for a city in western North Carolina and the seat of Buncombe County. All Asheville-class gunboats have since been donated to museums, scheduled for scrapping, or transferred to the Greek, Turkish, Colombian and South Korean Navies. The last two Asheville-class gunboats in US service were USS Chehalis and USS Grand Rapids, which were operated by the Naval Surface Warfare Center until they were stricken in 2016.
USS Tacoma (PG-92) was an Asheville-class gunboat of the U.S. Navy and the fourth ship to be named after the city of Tacoma, Washington. Tacoma was the first in a series of revised Asheville-class gunboats. Some sources call these revised boats Tacoma- or PG-92-class, but the U.S. Navy officially designates them as Asheville-class. The keel of Tacoma was laid 24 July 1967 at the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, in her namesake city. She was launched on 13 April 1968, sponsored by Mrs. Arne K. Strom, and was commissioned on 14 July 1969.
USS Marathon (PGM-89/PG-89) was an Asheville-class gunboat acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of high speed patrolling in shallow waterways.
USS Asheville (PGM-84/PG-84) was an Asheville-class gunboat acquired by the U.S. Navy for the task of high speed patrolling in shallow waterways. The third ship to be named Asheville by the Navy, the vessel was laid down on 15 April 1964 at Tacoma, Washington, by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company and launched on 1 May 1965, sponsored by Mrs. R. E. Harris. Asheville was commissioned on 6 August 1966.
USS Chehalis (PGM-94/PG-94) was an Asheville-class gunboat of the U.S. Navy and the second ship to be named Chehalis. Chehalis was launched 8 June 1968 at the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company. She was commissioned 8 November 1969. The vessel was named in honor of Chehalis, a city in Washington state. Later, she was transferred to Naval Sea Systems Command and renamed Research Vessel Athena. Athena was scrapped in 2016.
USS Asheville (PF-1) was an Asheville-class patrol frigate of the United States Navy that served during World War II. She was laid down on 10 March 1942 by Canadian Vickers Ltd. in Montreal, Quebec, Canada as the River-class frigate HMS Adur (K296) to serve in the British Royal Navy. She was launched on 22 August 1942 but due to a lack of American vessels for convoy protection she was transferred to the United States Navy prior to completion. On 1 December 1942, she was commissioned in Montreal as USS Asheville (PG-101), a patrol gunboat. She was reclassified PF-1 on 15 April 1943.
USS Defiance (PGM-95/PG-95) was a gunboat in the United States Navy and later transferred to Turkey. She was an Asheville-class gunboat, and the third ship to be named Defiance, in honor of the city of Defiance, Ohio.
The second USS Ready (PGM-87/PG-87) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.
The second USS Crockett (PGM-88/PG-88) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.
The first USS Canon (PGM-90/PG-90) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. She is currently on donation hold.
The second USS Welch (PGM-93/PG-93) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War.
The second USS Benicia (PGM-96/PG-96) was a Asheville-class gunboat in the United States Navy commissioned in 1970. She later served in the South Korean Navy as Paek Ku 51 (PGM-351).
USS Ozette (YTB-541), later YTM-541, was a United States Navy harbor tug commissioned in 1945 and in service until ca. 1974.
HMS Sarawak (K591) was a Colony-class frigate of the United Kingdom that served during World War II. She originally was ordered by the United States Navy as the Tacoma-class patrol frigateUSS Patton (PF-87) and was transferred to the Royal Navy prior to completion.
USS Douglas (PG-100) was an Asheville-class gunboat which served in the United States Navy from 1971 to 1977.
The Asheville-class gunboat was a class of two gunboats, USS Tulsa and USS Asheville, which was based on Sacramento, an earlier gunboat. Laid down between 1917 and 1919, construction was completed in the early 1920s after which both ships were employed to project US naval power across several different theaters, including Central America and the Pacific, during the interwar years. Tulsa principally served in Asia, assigned variously with the South China Patrol, Yangtze Patrol, and the Inshore Patrol; Asheville mostly stayed in Central America, but did spend a few years on the South China Patrol alongside Tulsa. When war broke out with Japan in the Pacific, both ships were used to escort convoys. Asheville was lost during the war, but Tulsa survived to be broken up in the late 1940s. The class was awarded a total of three battle stars, one for Asheville and two for Tulsa.
United States Navy submarines, surface ships, and aircraft launch torpedoes, missiles, and autonomous undersea vehicles as part of training exercises. Typically, these training munitions have no warhead and are recovered from the sea and reused. Similarly, new naval weapons under development are launched at sea in performance trials. These experimental units also need to be recovered, in their case to obtain evaluation data. At various points in history, newly manufactured torpedoes were fired as a quality control measure and these, too, had to be recovered before issuing them to the fleet. The U.S. Navy has used a variety of boats to accomplish the retrieval of these test and training munitions. As their missions evolved over the last century they have been variously known as torpedo retrievers, torpedo weapon retrievers, torpedo recovery boats, range support craft, and multi-purpose craft.
United States
