The second USS ''Machias'' (PF-53) was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in commission from 1944 to 1945 which later served in the Soviet Navy as ''EK-4'' and the

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

as JDS ''Nara'' (PF-2), JDS ''Nara'' (PF-282) and ''YTE-8''.

Construction and commissioning

''Machias'' originally was authorized as a patrol gunboat with the hull number PG-161, but she was redesignated as a patrol frigate with the hull number PF-53 on 15 April 1943. She was laid down under a

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 195 ...

contract as a Maritime Commission Type T.S2-S2-AQ1

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

on 8 April 1943 by Froemming Brothers, Inc., at

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. She was launched on 22 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. W. Richard Bernays, and commissioned on 29 March 1944.

Service history

U.S. Navy, World War II, 1944–1945

Ready for sea duty by 17 July 1944, ''Machias'' patrolled off the Middle Atlantic states and escorted a convoy to

Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...

in the

Netherlands West Indies nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad , year_start = 1954 , year_end = 2010 , date_start = 15 December , ...

before joining Escort Division 33 at

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, on 13 August 1944. With that division, she steamed to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to become a unit of Task Group 70.7, then assembling to depart for the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The task group departed New York on 16 August 1944, and by 28 August 1944 it had transited the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

en route Bora Bora. On 25 September 1944, ''Machias'' left the convoy to escort the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

infantry landing ships HMS ''Empire Arquebus'' and HMS ''Empire Battleaxe'' to the

New Hebrides Islands New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium (french: link=no, Condominium des Nouvelles-Hébrides, "Condominium of the New Hebrides") and named after the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group ...

and the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

to disembark

troops A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Troop Ro ...

. She rejoined her escort division at

Morotai Morotai Island ( id, Pulau Morotai) is an island in the Halmahera group of eastern Indonesia's Maluku Islands (Moluccas). It is one of Indonesia's northernmost islands. Morotai is a rugged, forested island lying to the north of Halmahera. It ha ...

on 23 October 1944 and commenced antisubmarine patrols in the waters surrounding the

Molucca Islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...

. On 15 November 1944, following a brief stay at

Mios Woendi Mios Woendi island is an island in the Schouten Islands of Papua province, eastern Indonesia. It lies in Cenderawasih Bay (or Geelvink Bay) off the northwestern coast of the island nation of Papua New Guinea. Description The island is in a ...

for

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

repairs, ''Machias'' steamed with her escort division for the Philippine Islands. She arrived on 18 November 1944 and, after further repairs, took up antisubmarine patrols off

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...

, primarily in

Surigao Strait Surigao Strait (Filipino: ''Kipot ng Surigaw'') is a strait in the southern Philippines, between the Bohol Sea and the Leyte Gulf of the Philippine Sea. Geography It is located between the regions of Visayas and Mindanao. It lies between northern ...

. She continued in this role until 4 December 1944, when she returned to convoy escort duty. For the next three months she escorted ships and carried military personnel to and from

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, the Philippines, the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

, and the Caroline Islands. ''Machias'' departed

Eniwetok Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

for

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on 19 March 1945 for an overhaul at Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Washington. Upon completion of her overhaul in June 1945, she proceeded to

Kodiak Kodiak may refer to: Places *Kodiak, Alaska, a city located on Kodiak island * Kodiak, Missouri, an unincorporated community *Kodiak Archipelago, in southern Alaska *Kodiak Island, the largest island of the Kodiak archipelago ** Kodiak Launch Com ...

in the Territory of Alaska. Earmarked for transfer to the Soviet Navy in Project Hula, a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy in anticipation of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

joining the war against Japan, ''Machias'' joined her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s , , , , , , , and in getting underway from Kodiak on 13 June 1945 bound for Cold Bay, Alaska, where they arrived on 14 June 1945 to enter Project Hula. Training of ''Machias''s new Soviet Navy crew soon began at Cold Bay.

Soviet Navy, 1945–1949

''Machias'' was decommissioned on 12 July 1945 at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union under

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

immediately along with nine of her sister ships, the first group of patrol frigates transferred to the Soviet Navy. Commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately, ''Machias'' was designated as a ''storozhevoi korabl'' ("escort ship") and renamed ''EK-4'' in Soviet service. On 15 July 1945, ''EK-4'' departed Cold Bay in company with nine of her sister ships – ''EK-1'' (ex-''Charlottesville''), ''EK-2'' (ex-''Long Beach''), ''EK-3'' (ex-''Belfast''), ''EK-5'' (ex-''San Pedro''), ''EK-6'' (ex-''Glendale''), ''EK-7'' (ex-''Sandusky''), ''EK-8'' (ex-''Coronado''), ''EK-9'' (ex-''Allentown''), and ''EK-10'' (ex-) – bound for Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union. ''EK-4'' served as a patrol vessel in the Soviet Far East. In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II. On 8 May 1947,

United States Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the United States Department of the Navy, Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States D ...

James V. Forrestal James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense. Forrestal came from a very strict middle-class Irish Catholic fami ...

informed the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

that the United States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned, ''EK-4'' among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships were protracted, but in October 1949 the Soviet Union finally returned ''EK-4'' to the U.S. Navy at Yokosuka, Japan.Russell, Richard A., ''Project Hula: Secret Soviet-American Cooperation in the War Against Japan'', Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1997, , pp. 37-38, 39.

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 1953–1971

Reverting to her original name, ''Machias'' remained at Yokosuka in a caretaker status in the

Pacific Reserve Fleet The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the "Mothball Fleet". While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, the basics are constant: keep the ships afloat and ...

until 14 January 1953, when the United States loaned her to Japan. She served in the

as . ''Nara'' was redesignated PF-282 on 1 September 1957. The U.S. Navy struck ''Machias''s name from the

Navy List A Navy Directory, formerly the Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval author ...

on 1 December 1961, and the United States transferred ''Nara'' outright to Japan on 28 August 1962. Decommissioned on 31 March 1966, ''Nara'' was redesignated ''YTE-3'' that day and entered non-commissioned service as a non-self-propelled pierside

training ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classr ...

. She was sold for scrapping in 1969.

Awards

American Campaign Medal The American Campaign Medal is a military award of the United States Armed Forces which was first created on November 6, 1942, by issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The medal was intended to recognize those military members who had perfo ...

* Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal with two

battle star A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...

s * World War II Victory Medal *

Medal "For the Victory over Japan" The Medal "For the Victory over Japan" (russian: Медаль «За победу над Японией») was a campaign medal of the Soviet Union established on September 30, 1945 by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet ...

(Soviet Union)

References

*
Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS ''Machias'' (PF-53), 1944–1953
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Machias (PF-53) Tacoma-class frigates Ships built in Milwaukee 1943 ships World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States Tacoma-class frigates of the Soviet Navy World War II frigates of the Soviet Union Cold War frigates of the Soviet Union Tacoma-class frigates of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Ships transferred under Project Hula