USS Castle Rock

USS Castle Rock (AVP-35) off Houghton, Washington, on 6 October 1944, two days before commissioning.
History
United States
Name	USS Castle Rock (AVP-35)
Namesake	Castle Rock, an island in Alaska
Builder	Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, Washington
Laid down	12 July 1943
Launched	11 March 1944
Sponsored by	Mrs. R. W. Cooper
Commissioned	8 October 1944
Decommissioned	6 August 1946
Fate	Loaned to United States Coast Guard 16 September 1948 Permanently transferred to Coast Guard 26 September 1966
United States
Name	USCGC Castle Rock (WAVP-383)
Namesake	Previous name retained
Acquired	Loaned by U.S. Navy to U.S. Coast Guard 16 September 1948 Transferred permanently from U.S. Navy to U.S. Coast Guard 26 September 1966
Commissioned	18 December 1948
Reclassified	High endurance cutter, WHEC-383, 1 May 1966
Decommissioned	21 December 1971
Honors and awards	Two campaign stars for Vietnam War service
Fate	Transferred to South Vietnam 21 December 1971
South Vietnam
Name	RVNS Trần Bình Trọng (HQ-05)
Namesake	Trần Bình Trọng (1259–1285), a Trần dynasty general and prince famed for helping to repel Mongol invasions, and for choosing to be executed rather than defect.
Acquired	21 December 1971
Fate	Fled to Philippines on collapse of South Vietnam April 1975 Formally transferred to Republic of the Philippines 5 April 1976
Philippines
Name	RPS Francisco Dagohoy (PF-10)
Namesake	Filipino revolutionary Francisco Dagohoy (fl. 1700s)
Acquired	5 April 1976
Commissioned	23 June 1979
Renamed	BRP Francisco Dagohoy (PF-10) July 1980
Decommissioned	June 1985
Fate	Discarded March 1993; probably scrapped
General characteristics (seaplane tender)
Class and type	Barnegat-class small seaplane tender
Displacement	1,766 tons (light) 2,592 tons (trial)
Length	310 ft 9 in (94.72 m)
Beam	41 ft 2 in (12.55 m)
Draft	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) (lim.)
Installed power	6,000 horsepower (4.48 megawatts)
Propulsion	Diesel engines, two shafts
Speed	18.2 knots (33.7 km/h)s
Complement	215 (ship's company) 367 (including aviation unit)
Sensors and processing systems	Radar; sonar
Armament	1 × 5 in (130 mm) gun 1 × quadruple 40-mm antiaircraft gun mount 2 × twin 40-mm gun mounts 6 × 20-mm antiaircraft guns 2 × depth charge tracks
Aviation facilities	Supplies, spare parts, repairs, and berthing for one seaplane squadron; 80,000 US gallons (300,000 L) aviation fuel
General characteristics (Coast Guard cutter)
Class and type	Casco-class cutter
Displacement	2,529 tons (full load) in 1966
Length	310 ft 9 in (94.72 m) overall; 300 ft 0 in (91.44 m) between perpendiculars
Beam	41 ft 2.375 in (12.55713 m) maximum
Draft	13 ft 8 in (4.17 m) maximum in 1966
Installed power	6,400 bhp (4,800 kW)
Propulsion	Fairbanks-Morse direct-reversing diesel engines, two shafts; 166,430 US gallons (630,000 L) of fuel
Speed	18.2 knots (33.7 km/h) (maximum sustained) in 1966 10.0 knots (18.5 km/h) (economic) in 1966
Range	8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 18.2 knots (33.7 km/h) in 1966 18,050 nautical miles (33,430 km) at 10.0 knots (18.5 km/h) in 1966
Complement	In 1966: 151 (10 officers, 3 warrant officers, 138 enlisted personnel)
Sensors and processing systems	Radars in 1966 (one each): SPS-51, SPS-29 Sonar in 1966: SQS-1
Armament	In 1966: 1 x single 5-inch (127 mm) 38-caliber Mod D gun mount; Mark 52 Mod 3 director; Mark 26 Mod 4 fire control radar 2 × 81-millimter mortars 2 × .50-caliber (12.7-millimeter machine guns 1 × Mark 10-1 antisubmarine projector; 2 x Mark 32 Mod 5 torpedo launchers
General characteristics (South Vietnamese frigate)
Class and type	Trần Quang Khải-class frigate
Displacement	1,766 tons (standard) 2,800 tons (full load)
Length	310 ft 9 in (94.72 m) (overall); 300 ft 0 in (91.44 m) waterline
Beam	41 ft 1 in (12.52 m)
Draft	13 ft 5 in (4.09 m)
Installed power	6,080 horsepower (4.54 megawatts)
Propulsion	2 x Fairbanks Morse 38D diesel engines
Speed	approximately 18 knots (maximum)
Complement	approximately 200
Armament	1 × 5-inch/38-caliber (127-millimeter) dual-purpose gun 1 or 2 x 81-millimeter mortars in some ships Several machine guns
General characteristics (Philippine Navy frigate)
Class and type	Andrés Bonifacio-class frigate
Displacement	1,766 tons standard, 2,800 tons full load
Length	311.65 ft (94.99 m)
Beam	41.18 ft (12.55 m)
Draft	13.66 ft (4.16 m)
Installed power	6,200 brake horsepower (4.63 megawatts)
Propulsion	2 × Fairbanks Morse 38D8 1/8 diesel engines
Speed	18.2 knots (33.7 km/h) (maximum)
Range	8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 15.6 knots (28.9 km/h)
Complement	About 200
Sensors and processing systems	Sperry SPS-53 Surface Search Radar Westinghouse AN/SPS-29D Air Search Radar Mk.26 Mod.1 Fire Control System Mk.52 Mod.3 Gun Director
Armament	1 × Mk.12 5-inch/38-caliber (127 mm) dual-purpose gun 2 × Mk.1 Twin Bofors L/60 40 mm AA guns 2 × Mk.3 Single Bofors L/60 40 mm AA guns 4 × Twin Oerlikon 20 mm cannon 4 × M2 Browning .50-caliber (12.7-mm) general-purpose machine guns 2 × 81 mm Mortars
Aircraft carried	None permanently assigned; helipad could accommodate one MBB Bo 105 Helicopter
Aviation facilities	Helipad; no support facilities aboard

USS Castle Rock (AVP-35) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender in commission from 1944 to 1946 which saw service in the late months of World War II. After the war, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard as the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Castle Rock (WAVP-383), later WHEC-383, from 1948 to 1971, seeing service in the Vietnam War during her Coast Guard career. Transferred to South Vietnam in 1971, she served in the Republic of Vietnam Navy as the frigate RVNS Trần Bình Trọng (HQ-05) and fought in the Battle of the Paracel Islands in 1974. When South Vietnam collapsed at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, Trần Bình Trọng fled to the Philippines, where she served in the Philippine Navy from 1979 to 1985 as the frigate RPS (later BRP) Francisco Dagohoy (PF-10).

Construction and commissioning

USS Castle Rock (AVP-35) is launched on 11 March 1944 at Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, Washington.

Castle Rock was laid down on 12 July 1943 at Houghton, Washington, by the Lake Washington Shipyard, and was launched on 11 March 1944, sponsored by Mrs. R. W. Cooper. She commissioned on 8 October 1944.

U.S. Navy service

World War II

Castle Rock stood out of San Diego, California, on 18 December 1944 bound for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Eniwetok, where she arrived on 28 January 1945. Assigned to escort convoys between Saipan, Guam, and Ulithi Atoll until 20 March 1945, Castle Rock then took up duties of tending seaplanes at Saipan. Her seaplanes carried out varied air operations, including reconnaissance, search, and antisubmarine warfare activities, while Castle Rock herself also performed local escort duties.

Post-World War II

On 28 November 1945, Castle Rock sailed from Saipan for Guam, where she embarked a group assigned to study Japanese defenses on Chichi Jima and Truk. This continued until 5 January 1946, when Castle Rock returned to seaplane tender operations at Saipan.

Castle Rock left Saipan on 9 March 1946, arriving at San Francisco, California, on 27 March 1946. She was decommissioned there on 6 August 1946

United States Coast Guard service

The commissioning ceremony for USCGC Castle Rock (WAVP-383) on 18 December 1948 at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California.

USCGC Castle Rock sometime before the U.S. Coast Guard's 1967 adoption of the "racing stripe" markings on its ships.

USCGC Castle Rock (WHEC-383) on 1 May 1969.

Barnegat-class ships were very reliable and seaworthy and had good habitability, and the Coast Guard viewed them as ideal for ocean station duty, in which they would perform weather reporting and search and rescue tasks, once they were modified by having a balloon shelter added aft and having oceanographic equipment, an oceanographic winch, and a hydrographic winch installed. After World War II, the U.S. Navy transferred 18 of the ships to the Coast Guard, in which they were known as the Casco-class cutters.

The U.S. Navy loaned Castle Rock to the Coast Guard on 16 September 1948. After undergoing conversion for use as a weather-reporting ship, she was commissioned into Coast Guard service as USCGC Castle Rock (WAVP-383) on 18 December 1948 at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California.

North Atlantic and Caribbean

Castle Rock was stationed at Boston, Massachusetts, after her commissioning. Her primary duty was to serve on ocean stations in the Atlantic Ocean to gather meteorological data. While on duty in one of these stations, she was required to patrol a 210-square-mile (544-square-kilometer) area for three weeks at a time, leaving the area only when physically relieved by another Coast Guard cutter or in the case of a dire emergency. While on station, she acted as an aircraft check point at the point of no return, a relay point for messages from ships and aircraft, as a source of the latest weather information for passing aircraft, as a floating oceanographic laboratory, and as a search-and-rescue ship for downed aircraft and vessels in distress, and she engaged in law enforcement operations.

In March 1956, Castle Rock towed the Finnish merchant ship Sunnavik from 300 nautical miles (560 km) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to safety.

Castle Rock reported to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for service during the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

Castle Rock took part in the United States Coast Guard Academy cadet cruise in May 1961, May 1963 and again in August 1965. These cadet cruises were in company with the Coast Guard Training (barque) sailing ship, the CGC Eagle and at least one other Coast Guard cutter.

On 1 May 1966, Castle Rock was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC-383. On 26 September 1966 her period on loan to the Coast Guard ended when she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register and transferred permanently to the Coast Guard.

Castle Rock was stationed at Portland, Maine, beginning in 1967, with the same duties she had as during her years at Boston. On 22 and 23 February 1967 she rescued eight people from the sinking fishing vessel Maureen and Michael 90 nautical miles (170 km) southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, Canada.

Vietnam War service

Castle Rock was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron Three in South Vietnam in 1971. While on an R & R visit from South Vietnam, she suffered an engineering casualty and sank at her pier in Singapore, but returned to duty with the squadron upon completion of repairs. Castle Rock arrived in Vietnam on 30 July 1971. Coast Guard Squadron Three was tasked to operate in conjunction with U.S. Navy forces in Operation Market Time, the interdiction of North Vietnamese arms and munitions traffic along the coastline of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The squadron's other Vietnam War duties included fire support for ground forces, resupplying Coast Guard and Navy patrol boats, and search-and-rescue operations. Castle Rock served in this capacity until 21 December 1971.

Honors and awards

Castle Rock was awarded two campaign stars for her Vietnam War service, for:

• Consolidation I 9 July 1971 – 30 November 1971
• Consolidation II 1 December 1971 – 21 December 1971

Decommissioning

After her antisubmarine warfare equipment had been removed, the Coast Guard decommissioned Castle Rock in South Vietnam on 21 December 1971, the day her Vietnam War tour ended.

Republic of Vietnam Navy service

RVNS Trần Bình Trọng (HQ-05) pierside at right, with her sister ships RVNS Trần Quốc Toản (HQ-06) (center) and RVNS Trần Quang Khải (HQ-02) (left).

On 21 December 1971, Castle Rock was transferred to South Vietnam, which commissioned her into the Republic of Vietnam Navy as the frigate RVNS Trần Bình Trọng. (HQ-05) was a South Vietnamese frigate of the Republic of Vietnam Navy in commission from 1971 to 1975. She and her six sister ships – all former Barnegat- and Casco-class ships transferred to South Vietnam in 1971 and 1972 and known in the Republic of Vietnam Navy as the Trần Quang Khải-class frigates – were the largest warships in the South Vietnamese inventory, and their 5-inch (127-millimeter) guns were South Vietnam's largest naval guns.

Service history

Trần Bình Trọng and her sisters fought alongside U.S. Navy ships during the final years of the Vietnam War, patrolling the South Vietnamese coast and providing gunfire support to South Vietnamese forces ashore.

The Battle of the Paracel Islands

Main article: Battle of the Paracel Islands

Possession of the Paracel Islands had long been disputed between South Vietnam and the People's Republic of China. With South Vietnamese forces stationed on the islands drawing down because they were needed on the Vietnamese mainland in the war with North Vietnam, China took advantage of the situation to send forces to seize the islands.

On 16 January 1974, the South Vietnamese frigate RVNS Lý Thường Kiệt (HQ-16) spotted Chinese forces ashore on the islands. Both Lý Thường Kiệt and the Chinese ordered one another to withdraw, and neither side did. Reinforcements arrived for both sides over the next three days, including Trần Bình Trọng, which appeared on the scene on 18 January 1974 with the commander of the Republic of Vietnam Navy, Captain Hà Văn Ngạc, aboard.

By the morning of 19 January 1974, the Chinese had four corvettes and two submarine chasers at the Paracels, while the South Vietnamese had Trần Bình Trọng, Lý Thường Kiệt, the frigate RVNS Trần Khánh Dư (HQ-4), and the corvette RVNS Nhật Tảo (HQ-10) on the scene. Trần Bình Trọng landed South Vietnamese troops on Duncan Island (or Quang Hoa in Vietnamese), and they were driven off by Chinese gunfire. The South Vietnamese ships opened fire on the Chinese ships at 10:24 hours, and the 40-minute Battle of the Paracel Islands ensued. Nhật Tảo was sunk, and the other three South Vietnamese ships all suffered damage; not equipped or trained for open-ocean combat and outgunned, the South Vietnamese ships were forced to withdraw. Chinese losses were more difficult to ascertain, but certainly most or all of them suffered damage and one or two may have sunk.

The Chinese seized the islands the next day, and they have remained under the control of the People's Republic of China ever since.

Flight to the Philippines

When South Vietnam collapsed at the end of the Vietnam War in late April 1975, Trần Bình Trọng became a ship without a country. She fled to Subic Bay in the Philippines, packed with South Vietnamese refugees. On 22 and 23 May 1975, a U.S. Coast Guard team inspected Trần Bình Trọng and five of her sister ships, which also had fled to the Philippines in April 1975. One of the inspectors noted: "These vessels brought in several hundred refugees and are generally rat-infested. They are in a filthy, deplorable condition. Below decks generally would compare with a garbage scow."

Philippine Navy service

After Trần Bình Trọng had been cleaned and repaired, the United States formally transferred her to the Republic of the Philippines on 5 April 1976. She was commissioned into the Philippine Navy as the frigate RPS Francisco Dagohoy (PF-10) on 23 June 1979. In June 1980 she was reclassified and renamed BRP Francisco Dagohoy (PF-10). She and three other Barnegat- and Casco-class ships were known as the Andrés Bonifacio-class frigates in Philippine service and were the largest Philippine Navy ships of their time.

Modernization

The Andrés Bonifacio-class frigates were passed to the Philippine Navy with fewer weapons aboard than they had had during their U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast guard careers and with old surface search radars installed. The Philippine Navy addressed these shortfalls through modernization programs. In Philippine service, Francisco Dagohoy retained her South Vietnamese armament, consisting of a single Mark 12 5"/38 caliber (127-mm) gun, a dual-purpose weapon capable of anti-surface and anti-air fire, mounted in a Mark 30 Mod 0 enclosed base ring with a range of up to 18,200 yards (16,600 m) yards; two twin Mark 1 Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun mounts, four Mk. 4 single 20-millimeter Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun mounts, four M2 Browning .50-caliber (12.7-millimeter) general-purpose machine guns, and two 81-mm mortars. However, in 1979 Hatch and Kirk, Inc., added a helicopter deck aft which could accommodate a Philippine Navy MBB Bo 105C helicopter for utility, scouting, and maritime patrol purposes, although the ship had no capability to refuel or otherwise support visiting helicopters. The Sperry SPS-53 surface search and navigation radar also was installed, replacing the AN/SPS-23 radar, although the ship retained both its AN/SPS-29D air search radar and its Mark 26 Mod 1 Fire Control Radar System. The Philippine Navy made plans to equip Francisco Dagohoy and her sister ships with new radar systems and long-range BGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles, but this upgrade did not materialize due to the worsening political and economic crisis in the Philippines in the mid-1980s.

Service history

Francisco Dagohoy served in the Philippine Navy until she was decommissioned along with two other Andrés Bonifacio-class frigates in June 1985. Unlike her two decommissioned sister ships, Francisco Dagohoy was never re-activated. She was discarded in March 1993 and probably scrapped.

References

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Castle Rock (AVP-35), 1944-1948
• NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive USS Castle Rock (AVP-35) USCGC Castle Rock (WAVP-383 WHEC-383)
• United States Coast Guard Historian's Office: Castle Rock, 1948 AVP-35; WAVP / WHEC-383
• United States Coast Guard Historian's Office: Mackinac, 1949 WHEC-371
• United States Coast Guard Historian's Office: Gresham, 1947 AGP-9; AVP-57; WAVP / WHEC / WAGW-387 ex-USS Willoughby Radio call sign: NODB
• United States Coast Guard Historian's Office: McCulloch, 1946 WAVP / WHEC-386
• The Inventory of VNN's Battle Ships Part 1^[usurped]
• Philippine Navy Official website
• Philippine Fleet Official Website Archived 18 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• Philippine Defense Forum
• Hazegray World Navies Today: Philippines
• Naming and Code Designation of PN Ships Archived 28 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• Chesneau, Roger. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. New York: Mayflower Books, Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.
• Gardiner, Robert. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1982, Part I: The Western Powers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1983. ISBN 0-87021-918-9.
• Gray, Randal, Ed. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1982 Part II: The Warsaw Pact and Non-Aligned Nations. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1983. ISBN 0-87021-919-7.
• Moore, John, Captain, RN, FRGS, Ed. Jane's Fighting Ships 1973-1974. London: Jane's Yearbooks, 1973. No ISBN.
• Moore, John, Captain, RN, Ed. Jane's Fighting Ships 1980-1981. New York: Jane's Publishing, Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-531-03937-4.