HMS Bahamas

The unnamed gunboat PG-183 was laid down on 7 April 1943 at Providence, R.I., by the Walsh Kaiser Co., under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 1657); reclassified a frigate, PF 75 , on 15 April 1943; allocated to the Royal Navy under Lend Lease on 10 June 1943; launched on 17 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. James A. Gallagher; leased to the United Kingdom on 6 December 1943; and commissioned by the Royal Navy on 7 December 1943 at the Naval Operating Base, Newport, R.I., as Bahamas (K.503), Temporary Acting Lt. Cmdr. Walter S. Thomson, RNR, in command.

After shakedown and training out of Casco Bay, Maine, and near Bermuda, Bahamas proceeded to the British Isles. During World War II, her “battle honors” recognized service in the Arctic in 1944 and in the North Atlantic in 1944 and 1945.

Returned to the U.S.after World War II, Bahamas was accepted by the U.S. Navy at the Boston [Mass.] Naval Shipyard on 11 June 1946. Declared “not essential” to the defense of the United States on 13 July 1946, she was stricken from the Navy List on 19 July 1946.

Sold to the John J. Duane Co., of Quincy, Mass., ex- Bahamas was turned over to a representative of that firm at the Naval Base, Newport, R.I., on 16 December 1947. Her hull was broken up for scrap by January 1949.

From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Bahamas (PF-75)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.