U S NAVY 4th FLEET AT RECIFE - SHIP INDEX PC PCE PG PY PYC

Specifications:

Length 173' 8" 

Beam 23' 

Draft 10' 10" 

Speed 20.2 kts. 

Complement 65. 

Armament one 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, one 40mm gun mount; three 20mm guns, two rocket launchers, four depth charge projectiles, and two depth charge tracks.

Propulsion two 2,880bhp Hooven-Owen-Rentschler R-99DA diesel engines (Serial No. 6674 and 6675), Westinghouse single reduction gear, two shafts. 

Shortly after noon on 18 October 1941, amid the applause of thousands of spectators and the whistled salutes of river craft, the submarine chaser PC-490 slid sideways smoothly on a launching dolly at the shipyard of the Dravo Corporation on Neville Island and floated gracefully in the placid waters of the Ohio River. Neville Island sits in the middle of the Ohio river just west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the first time since the War of 1812 that a sea going fighting ship was launched from this inland river shipyard.

It was the first of fifteen PC sub chasers to be built at the Neville Island yard and was the first PC to get underway with H. 0. R. main engines. She served with distinction in the Caribbean and South Atlantic Sea Frontiers, dropping many depth charges while on convoy duty in the early part of the war (1942-44). After overhaul at Miami, Florida she headed for the Pacific theater of operations. VJ Day found her in the Leyte Gulf. She was the first PC to go up the Wangpo River to Shanghai, China and had destroyed many mines in the Yellow Sea. She returned to the states on the 21st of December, 1945.

On the 27 August 1948, the PC-490 was turned over to the Taiwanese Navy were it served under the name of Wu Sung until 1952, when in was stricken and scrapped. 

R. W. Daly/PC-1181

Photo. 1201049002.jpg (800×468) (navsource.org) By Bob Daly PC 1181 PC 490 seen during launching