USSMachias (PF-53)c. March 1944
History
United States
Name	Machias
Namesake	City ofMachias, Maine
Reclassified	PF-53, 15 April 1943
Builder	Froemming Brothers, Inc.,Milwaukee,Wisconsin
Laid down	8 May 1943
Launched	22 August 1943
Sponsored by	Mrs. W. Richard Bernays
Commissioned	29 March 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, October 1949
Fate	Transferred to theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force, 14 January 1953
Stricken	1 December 1961
Soviet Union
Name	EK-4[2]
Acquired	12 July 1945[1]
Commissioned	12 July 1945[3]
Fate	Returned to United States, October 1949
Japan
Name	Nara
Acquired	By loan 14 January 1953 Permanent transfer 28 August 1962
Reclassified	PF-282, 1 September 1957
Decommissioned	31 March 1966
Renamed	YTE-8, 31 March 1966
Reclassified	Pier-sidetraining ship (YTE), 31 March 1966
Fate	Sold for scrapping 1969
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 6 in (11.43 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-gun depth charge projectors 2 × Depth charge tracks

The secondUSSMachias (PF-53) was aUnited States NavyTacoma-classfrigate in commission from 1944 to 1945 which later served in theSoviet Navy asEK-4 and theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force asJDSNara (PF-2),JDSNara (PF-282) andYTE-8.

Machias originally was authorized as a patrolgunboat with thehull number PG-161, but she was redesignated as apatrol frigate with the hull number PF-53 on 15 April 1943. She was laid down under aMaritime Commission contract as a Maritime Commission Type T.S2-S2-AQ1hull on 8 April 1943 byFroemming Brothers, Inc., atMilwaukee,Wisconsin. She waslaunched on 22 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. W. Richard Bernays, andcommissioned on 29 March 1944.

Ready for sea duty by 17 July 1944,Machias patrolled off theMiddle Atlantic states and escorted aconvoy toAruba in theNetherlands West Indies before joining Escort Division 33 atNorfolk,Virginia, on 13 August 1944. With that division, she steamed toNew York City to become a unit ofTask Group 70.7, then assembling to depart for thePacific Ocean.

The task group departed New York on 16 August 1944, and by 28 August 1944 it had transited thePanama Canal en routeBora Bora. On 25 September 1944,Machias left the convoy to escort theRoyal Navyinfantry landing shipsHMSEmpire Arquebus andHMSEmpire Battleaxe to theNew Hebrides Islands and theSolomon Islands to disembarktroops. She rejoined her escort division atMorotai on 23 October 1944 and commencedantisubmarine patrols in the waters surrounding theMolucca Islands.

On 15 November 1944, following a brief stay atMios Woendi forboiler repairs,Machias steamed with her escort division for thePhilippine Islands. She arrived on 18 November 1944 and, after further repairs, took up antisubmarine patrols offMindanao, primarily inSurigao Strait. She continued in this role until 4 December 1944, when she returned to convoy escort duty. For the next three months she escorted ships and carried military personnel to and fromNew Guinea, the Philippines, theMarshall Islands, and theCaroline Islands.

Machias departedEniwetok forSeattle,Washington on 19 March 1945 for anoverhaul atPuget Sound Navy Yard atBremerton, Washington. Upon completion of her overhaul in June 1945, she proceeded toKodiak in theTerritory of Alaska. 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,Machias joined hersister shipsUSS Charlottesville (PF-25),USS 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), andUSS Sandusky (PF-54) in getting underway from Kodiak on 13 June 1945 bound forCold Bay, Alaska, where they arrived on 14 June 1945 to enter Project Hula. Training ofMachias's new Soviet Navy crew soon began at Cold Bay.^[4]

Machias 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,^[3]Machias was designated as astorozhevoi korabl ("escort ship") and renamedEK-4^[2] in Soviet service. On 15 July 1945,EK-4 departed Cold Bay in company with nine of her sister ships –EK-1 (ex-Charlottesville),EK-2 (ex-Long Beach),EK-3 (ex-Belfast),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-4 served as a patrol vessel in theSoviet Far East.^[5]

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-4 among them. Negotiations for the return of the ships were protracted, but in October 1949 the Soviet Union finally returnedEK-4 to the U.S. Navy atYokosuka, Japan.^[6]

Reverting to her original name,Machias remained at Yokosuka in a caretaker status in thePacific Reserve Fleet until 14 January 1953, when the United States loaned her to Japan. She served in theJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force asJDSNara (PF-2) (なら (PF-2); "oak").^[7]Nara was redesignatedPF-282 on 1 September 1957.^[7]

The U.S. Navy struckMachias's name from theNavy List on 1 December 1961, and the United States transferredNara outright to Japan on 28 August 1962. Decommissioned on 31 March 1966,Nara was redesignatedYTE-3 that day and entered non-commissioned service as a non-self-propelledpiersidetraining ship. She was sold for scrapping in 1969.

• American Campaign Medal
• Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal with twobattle stars
• World War II Victory Medal
• Medal "For the Victory over Japan" (Soviet Union)

•  This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
• Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USSMachias (PF-53), 1944–1953
• "The Naval Database: JMSDF Kusu class patrol frigate (PF282) Nara" (in Japanese). Retrieved22 September 2014.

• Tacoma-class frigates
• Ships built in Milwaukee
• 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 March 2022
• Articles containing Japanese-language text
• Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)