Christopher Knapp commanding a crew of eight officers and 175 enlisted men. After loading stores and fitting out, the ship was commissioned in November, with Coast Guard Lt. The DE was launched and christened in August in memory of Navy Pharmacist Mate 3rd Class Kenneth Durant, who was killed in action at Guadalcanal while tending wounded marines. Durant was heavily-armed for its size with three three-inch guns, one twin 40mm anti-aircraft mount, eight single 20mm anti-aircraft guns, three 21- inch torpedo tubes, one anti-submarine hedgehog projector, eight depth charge projectors and two depth charge racks.īrown Shipbuilding Company in Houston, Texas, laid Durant’s keel in May 1943. Four Fairbanks-Morse geared diesel engines, four diesel-electric generators of 600 shaft horsepower, and two screws moved the cutter at 21 and a half knots wide open. It was nearly 310 feet long, with a 37-foot beam, nine-foot draft and a displacement of 1,660 tons. The USS Durant (DE-389) was one of several destroyer escorts (DE) the Coast Guard operated during World War II and the Cold War.ĭurant was built as an Edsall-class destroyer escort. However, during World War II, Coast Guardsmen operated a number of smaller classes of warships, including sub chasers, patrol gunboats, patrol craft, patrol frigates, and destroyer escorts. Surprisingly, in the Coast Guard’s 230-year history, the service has operated very few purpose-built naval warships.
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