USSCharlottesville in 1948
History
United States
Name	Charlottesville
Namesake	City ofCharlottesville, Virginia
Reclassified	PF-25, 15 April 1943
Builder	Walter Butler Shipbuilding Company,Superior,Wisconsin
Laid down	12 May 1943
Launched	30 July 1943
Sponsored by	Mrs. J. E. Gleason
Commissioned	10 April 1944
Decommissioned	12 July 1945
Honors & awards	2battle stars,World War II
Fate	Transferred to theSoviet Navy, 12 July 1945[1]
Acquired	Returned by Soviet Navy, 17 October 1949
Fate	Transferred toJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 14 January 1953
Soviet Union
Name	EK-1
Acquired	12 July 1945[1]
Commissioned	12 July 1945[1]
Fate	Returned to United States, 17 October 1949
Japan
Name	Matsu
Acquired	14 January 1953
Renamed	YAS-36, 31 March 1966
Reclassified	Auxiliary service vessel (YAS) 31 March 1966
Decommissioned	31 March 1969
Fate	Returned to United States, 12 July 1972 Final disposition unknown
General characteristics
Class & type	Tacoma-class frigate
Displacement	1,430 long tons (1,453 t) light 2,415 long tons (2,454 t) full
Length	303 ft 11 in (92.63 m)
Beam	37 ft 11 in (11.56 m)
Draft	13 ft 8 in (4.17 m)
Propulsion	2 × 5,500 shp (4,101 kW) turbines 3 boilers 2 shafts
Speed	20knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)
Complement	190
Armament	3 ×3"/50 dual purpose guns (3x1) 4 x40 mm guns (2×2) 9 ×20 mm guns (9×1) 1 ×Hedgehoganti-submarine mortar 8 × Y-gundepth charge projectors 2 × Depth charge tracks

USSCharlottesville (PF-25), aUnited States NavyTacoma-classfrigate in commission from 1944 to 1945, has been the only US Navy ship thus far to be named forCharlottesville, Virginia. She later served in theSoviet Navy asEK-1 and in theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force asJDSMatsu (PF-6),JDSMatsu (PF-286) andYAS-36.

Originally classified as a patrolgunboat,PG-133,Charlottesville was reclassified as apatrol frigate, PF-25, on 15 April 1943. She waslaunched on 30 July 1943, by theWalter Butler Shipbuilding Company inSuperior,Wisconsin, under aMaritime Commission contract, sponsored by Mrs. J. E. Gleason, wife of themayor of Charlottesville,Virginia. The ship wascommissioned on 10 April 1944.

DepartingNew York City on 18 August 1944,Charlottesville arrived atFinschhafen,New Guinea, on 29 September 1944 by way ofBora Bora in theSociety Islands. She operated onconvoy escort andanti-submarine patrol duty between New Guinea and thePhilippine Islands until 6 March 1945, when she departedLeyte in the Philippines forSeattle,Washington.

Earmarked for transfer to theSoviet Navy inProject Hula, a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy in anticipation of theSoviet Union joining thewar against Japan,Charlottesville steamed toKodiak in theTerritory of Alaska after the completion ofoverhaul and modifications at Seattle. On 13 June 1945,Charlottesville joined hersister shipsUSS Long Beach (PF-34),USS Belfast (PF-35),USS Glendale (PF-36),USS San Pedro (PF-37),USS Coronado (PF-38),USS Allentown (PF-52),USS Machias (PF-53), andUSS Sandusky (PF-54) in getting underway from Kodiak forCold Bay, Alaska, where they arrived on 14 June 1945 to enter Project Hula. Training ofCharlottesville's new Soviet Navy crew soon began at Cold Bay.^[2]

Charlottesville wasdecommissioned on 12 July 1945 at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union underLend-Lease immediately^[1] along with nine of her sister ships, the first group of patrol frigates transferred to the Soviet Navy. Commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,^[1]Charlottesville was designated as astorozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamedEK-1 in Soviet service. On 15 July 1945,EK-1 departed Cold Bay in company with nine of her sister ships –EK-2 (ex-Long Beach),EK-3 (ex-Belfast),EK-4 (ex-Machias),EK-5 (ex-San Pedro),EK-6 (ex-Glendale),EK-7 (ex-Sandusky),EK-8 (ex-Coronado),EK-9 (ex-Allentown), andEK-10 (ex-USS Ogden (PF-39)) – bound forPetropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union.EK-1 served as a patrol vessel in theSoviet Far East.^[3]

In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II. On 8 May 1947,United States Secretary of the NavyJames V. Forrestal informed theUnited States Department of State that theUnited States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned,EK-1 among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships was protracted, but on 17 October 1949 the Soviet Union finally returnedEK-1 to the U.S. Navy atYokosuka, Japan.^[4]

Reverting to her former name,Charlottesville was laid up in thePacific Reserve Fleet at Yokosuka, and remained idle until the United States loaned her toJapan on 14 January 1953 for service in theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force, which renamed herJDSMatsu (PF-6) (まつ (PF-6); "pine tree").^[5]Matsu was redesignatedPF-286 on 1 September 1957.^[5] She was reclassified as an "auxiliary service vessel" and renamedYAS-36 on 31 March 1966.^[5] Decommissioned on 31 March 1969, she was returned to U.S. custody on 12 July 1972. Her fate thereafter is unknown.

The US Navy awardedCharlottesville twobattle stars for service inWorld War II.

 This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.

• Photo gallery of USSCharlottesville at NavSource Naval History
• hazegray.org: USSCharlottesville
• "The Naval Database: JMSDF Kusu class patrol frigate (PF286) Matsu" (in Japanese). Retrieved22 September 2014.

• Tacoma-class frigates
• Ships built in Superior, Wisconsin
• 1943 ships
• World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States
• Tacoma-class frigates of the Soviet Navy
• World War II frigates of the Soviet Union
• Cold War frigates of the Soviet Union
• Tacoma-class frigates of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
• Ships transferred under Project Hula

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from July 2021
• Articles containing Japanese-language text
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)