Built by the yard of Walsh-Kaiser Co. Inc., Providence Rhode Island, for the Maritime Commission contract hull No 1667.
15 April 1943 launched under the name USS PILFORD, Mrs. Harry H. Dugan christened her
Displacement 1.430 ton, full load 2.415 ton, dim. length 303.11 x 37.8 x 13.8ft. (draught)
Powered by a triple expansion steamengine, 5.500shp. Speed 20 knots.
Armament 3 – 3 inch guns, 2 – 40mm AA twin gun mounts, 9 – 20mm AA guns, 8 deptcharge throwers, 1 Hedgehog mortar aft.
Crew 180, during war 214.
06 July 1944 completed, and transferred to the Royal Navy on 07 July 1944 and renamed HMS PITCAIRN.
The Colony class frigates were mass-produced by American shipyards during the last half of 1943; the design was a modification of the British River Class. 21 were loaned to the Royal Navy.
Originally authorized as Gunboat PG-193, then redesignated a Patrol Frigate PF-85, the USS PILFORD.
She was built under a Maritime Commission contract by Walsh-Kaiser Co. Inc. in Seattle, U.S.A. and launched in Providence, Rhode Island on 15 April 1943.
As one of 21 frigates built of similar design the PILFORD, like the other frigates, were named after American Captains.
When handed over to the British Navy the class was changed to Colony class.
Under the Lend-Lease Program she was assigned to the Royal Navy, and officially commissioned on 07 July 1944 as HMS PITCAIRN (K-589).
She served as a patrol and escort vessel during the remainder of the Second World War with other Colony class frigates mostly in the North Atlantic.
08 October 1944 she was thrown into the fray, while escorting six Russian ships from St John’s New Foundland to Falmouth in the U.K. She came in contact with a German U-boat and at 01.00 hours she carried out a depth charge attack (know as a ‘hedgehog’ attack as the depth charges are fired forward of the ship over the bow.)
A torpedo was sighted passing down the port side of the PITCAIRN, missing the stern by just 30 yards. Contact was lost after three hedgehog attacks.
The HMS PITCAIRN was returned to the United States Maritime Commission on 11June 1946 at Boston, and was removed from the Navy List on 03 July the same year.
She was eventually sold for scrap to ship breaker John J Duane Co, Quincy, Massachusetts on 08 November 1947.
Source: Watercraft Philately 2004/07.