By James Heinz
Or at least so I thought. When I was a kid, my father took me down to the Milwaukee River where it turns from flowing south to flowing east. There I saw two warships tied to the river bank about where the Sail Loft restaurant is today. As a kid I was deeply impressed with the ships and I thought they meant that the city of Milwaukee had its own navy. I still remember the ships today for that reason and also for another reason:
My father bought me ice cream.
One of these ships was USS PORTAGE (PCE-902). Although named after a Wisconsin city, it was launched in 1943 in Portland, Oregon. PCE stood for Patrol Craft, Escort. The PCE was a further development of the Patrol Craft (PC) ship mentioned in a previous story: https://wmhs.org/on-this-day-a-ship-built-in-wisconsin-led-the-normandy-invasion/
The PCE-842 class vessel was developed as a small, cheap, easily produced convoy escort and general patrol vessel. They displayed 850 tons, were 184 feet long, and 33 feet wide. They had twin propellers with twin diesel engines that could make 19 knots and had a crew of 99. They had one 3 inch gun, six 40mm guns, and four 20mm guns, as well as a Hedgehog antisubmarine rocket launcher and depth charges.
WMHS files show that PCE-902’s war service was limited to being a weather reporting ship between Hawaii and Midway Island until 1949. After that she was sent to the Philadelphia navy yard. On May 17, 1950, she arrived in Milwaukee and was made part of the naval reserve training squadron.
She made cruises on the Great Lakes and visited many of its ports as well as taking training cruises to the East Coast. In 1956 her name was changed to PORTAGE. In 1958 she and two other PCEs were the first U.S. Navy ships to transit the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Navsource.net states that PORTAGE was taken off the Navy Register in 1970. In 1989 she was sold to a fishing company. Her ultimate fate is unknown.
—————-
James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
Photo Credit: Great Lakes Marine Collection of the Milwaukee Public Library and Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
