USS Key West (PF-17)

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Career	Image:US Naval Jack.svg
Image:USS Key West (PF-17).jpg USS Key West (PF-17) being launched sideways.
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	29 December 1943
Commissioned:	7 November 1944
Decommissioned:	14 June 1946
Struck:
Fate:	Sold 18 April 1947 and scrapped
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,430 tons (light), 2,415 tons (full)
Length:	303 ft 11 in (92.6 m)
Beam:	37 ft 6 in (11.4 m)
Draft:	13 ft 8 in (4.1 m)
Propulsion:	Three boilers 2 × 5,500 SHP turbines two shafts
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	190
Armament:	3 × 3 in/50 AA guns (3x1) 4 × 40mm guns (2x2) 9 × 20mm (9x1) 1 × Hedgehog projector 8 × Y-gun depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge racks
Motto:

USS Key West (PF-17), a Tacoma-class frigate, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Key West, Florida.

The second Key West, PF-17, originally classified PG-125, was launched 29 December 1943 by the American Ship Building Company in Lorain, Ohio, sponsored by Mrs. Vernon Lowe; sister of Lieutenant Harold Felton, the first resident of Key West reported missing in World War II; and commissioned at Houston, Texas, on 7 November 1944, with Lieutenant Commander B. Papanek, USCGR, in command.

Key West stood out of Galveston Bay on 17 November 1944 for training exercises and escort duty out of Bermuda. The frigate operated there until sailing for Norfolk 22 December. Key West departed Hampton Roads on 18 January 1945 escorting a convoy to Oran, Algeria, and returned to Boston, Massachusetts, on 28 February.

During the next 4 months, she made two cruises out of Casco Bay, Maine. Upon her return to New York on 14 June from her final cruise, Key West remained at Brooklyn until 5 July when she sailed for Boston for conversion to a weather ship.

She departed Boston on 31 July, and after transiting the Panama Canal, arrived at Pearl Harbor on 23 August. Key West was then assigned to duty of weather station patrol in the vicinity of Guam, arriving there on 10 September. She operated out of Apra Harbor reporting meteorological data and stood by to aid ships in distress until 14 March 1946 when she arrived at San Francisco, California. Key West departed San Francisco on 9 April and served for 3 weeks on plane-guard station off the North California Coast. The weather ship arrived at Seattle, Washington, on 1 May, and was decommissioned at Bremerton, Washington, on 14 June 1946. She was sold on 18 April 1947 to Cascade Enterprises of Oakland, California, and scrapped.