Pierre I (PC-1141)
1943–1958
The capital city of the state of South Dakota.
I
(PC-1141: displacement 350; length 173'8"; beam 23'; draft 7'7"; speed 20 knots; complement 65; armament 1 3-inch, 1 40-millimeter, 2 depth charge tracks; class PC-461)
PC-1141 was laid down on 12 March 1943 at Bay City, Mich., by the Defoe Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 22 June 1943; and commissioned at New Orleans, La., on 23 December 1943, Lt. (j.g.) J. T. Weber, USNR, in command.
After fitting out at the Naval Station, New Orleans, PC-1141 departed the Crescent City on 6 January 1944 and arrived three days later at the Submarine Chaser Training Center, Miami, Fla. After her shakedown off Miami, she underwent alterations at the Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock Co., Miami, until 13 February when she departed for training at the Fleet Sonar School, Key West. Assigned duty under the Commander Gulf Sea Frontier, PC-1141 escorted convoys in the Gulf of Mexico and between Key West, Miami, and Cuba. On 13 May she sailed from Key West escorting a convoy that reached New York on 18 May.
Subsequently assigned duty under the Commander Eastern Sea Frontier, PC-1141 based on the Naval Frontier Base, Tompkinsville, Staten Island, N.Y., until 18 June 1944. She made twelve escort voyages from New York to Guantanamo Bay and back (31 May 1944–10 May 1945). After overhaul at the Marine Basin Co., and the Naval Frontier Base, she departed New York with four other submarine chasers on 18 June, reaching San Diego on 9 July.
PC-1141 then steamed independently to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, arriving on 25 July 1945 for duty with the Service Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. On 7 August she got underway as escort unit of a convoy which arrived at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, on 17 August. She remained in the Marshalls through 12 February 1946, conducting air-sea rescue patrol off Kwajalein and Roi Islands and standing by for long range air-sea rescue work. She departed Kwajalein on 12 February and arrived at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 17 March for upkeep.
PC-1141 sailed from San Francisco 15 June 1946 for brief operations at Pearl Harbor, then steamed to Pago Pago Harbor, Tutuila, Samoa, arriving on 15 July. A unit of Service Division 11 of the Service Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, she was based at Pago Pago until late in January 1948, conducting rescue station patrol among the Samoan Islands with periodic voyages to Funafuti, Ellice Islands. In May she took up air-sea rescue station at Johnston Island.
PC-1141 continued air-sea rescue station and patrol duties until April 1954. During this time she was alternately based at Johnston Island, Midway Island, Pearl Harbor, and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. On 10 April 1954 she was permanently based at Pearl Harbor to operate under the Commandant of the Fourteenth Naval District for the remainder of her career in the U.S. Navy, being named Pierre on 15 February 1956. Her primary duty was conducting training cruises for naval reservists among the Hawaiian Islands, and training cruises to Canton Island, Samoa; San Francisco, Calif.; and Papeete, Tahiti French Territorial Islands.
Decommissioned at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 25 October 1958, Pierre was transferred to the Government of Indonesia under terms of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP). She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 25 October 1958 and became R. L. Tjakalang of the Indonesian Navy.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
5 February 2019
