USS Asheville (PG-21)

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Career (US)
Laid down:	9 June 1918
Launched:	4 July 1918
Commissioned:	6 July 1920
Struck:	8 May 1942
Fate:	3 March 1942 Sunk by enemy action
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,207 {1t}; 1760 {ft}
Length:	241 ft 2 in (73.5 m)
Beam:	41 ft 3 in (12.6 m)
Draught:	12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Speed:	12 knots
Complement:	159
Armament:	5"/50 gun mounts; 2 3-pounders

USS Asheville (PG-21) was a gunboat that served in the United States Navy during both world wars. She was sunk by Japanese forces 3 March 1942, south of the island of Java, in what was then the Netherlands East Indies.

The patrol gunboat Asheville (PG-21), launched 4 July 1918, commissioned 6 July 1920, spent the larger part of her service as a part of the Asiatic Fleet with extensive service in China as a member of the Yangtze Patrol and in the Philippines. {From 1929 to 1931 she was stationed in the Caribbean and Nicaragua Banana Wars}. She was part of the Asiatic Fleet at the outbreak of World War II. The ship was on patrol in the Philippines when Pearl Harbor was attacked 8 December 1941 (7 December in Hawaii). Ordered south by CINCAF to the Dutch East Indies (N.E.I.) in December 1941 with most of the rest of the American surface fleet, Asheville escaped early destruction only by making a 12 day, 2,000 mile voyage to the south coast of Java.

The Japanese victory in the Battle of the Java Sea marked the end of the Asiatic Fleet and all remaining Allied ships were ordered to retreat to Australia or Ceylon. Hampered by engine troubles and sailing alone, Asheville was sunk south of Java by a Japanese Destroyers squadron of Arashi[1] and Nowaki[2] on 3 March 1942. One survivor, FM/1c Fred L. Brown from Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was picked up by a Japanese destroyer. Mr. Brown later died in P.O.W. camp in the Celebes, N.E.I., in March 1945.

Asheville was one of the few American surface ships lost with no known survivors at the end of the war.

The Asheville received one battle star for her WWII service.

[edit] References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

[edit] External links

• USS "Asheville {Photograph taken in 1924}
• history.navy.mil: USS Asheville {Another photograph of USS Asheville}
• navsource.org: USS Asheville