USS Evansville (PF-70)

The second Evansville (PF-70) was launched 27 November 1943 by Leathern D. Smith Shipbuilding Co., Sturgeon Bay, Wis.; sponsored by Mrs. Don Davis, daughter of the Mayor of Evansville, Ind.; and commissioned 4 December 1944, Lieutenant Commander G. T. Applegate, USCG, in command.

Evansville sailed down the Mississippi and after calling at Mobile, Ala., reached Charleston, S.C., 31 December. Through the next 6 months, she had escort duty along the east coast and to Bermuda, patrolled off New York, and served briefly as a weather station ship. She departed New York City 9 July 1945 bound for San Diego, Seattle, and Cold Bay, where she was decommissioned 9 September 1945, having been transferred to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under lend lease 4 September 1945.

Returned by Russia at Yokosuka, Japan, Evansville was recommissioned 29 July 1950, and served on patrol out of Yokosuka and in Korean waters until decommissioned 28 February 1953. On 31 October 1953 she was transferred under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program to Japan, in whose Maritime Self-Defense Force she serves as Keyaki.

From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Evansville II (PF-70)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.