From the “Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships,” 
(1968) Vol. 3, pp.405-406.


HURST

DE-250
Displacement:  1,200 t.
Length:  306’
Beam:  36’7”
Draft:  8’7”
Speed:  21 k.
Complement:  186
Armament:  3 3”; 
	2 depth charge tracks;
	8 hedge charge projectors;
	1 hedge hog
Class:  EDSALL

	The second HURST (DE-250), a destroyer escort, was 
launched by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Tex., 14 April 
1943; sponsored by Mrs. Jeanette Harris Hurst, widow; and 
commissioned 30 August 1943, Lt. Comdr. B. H. Brallier 
commanding.

	HURST departed Houston 3 September and after a short 
period of outfitting at Galveston, sailed 12 September for 
shakedown training off Bermuda.  After returning briefly to 
Charleston in November and screening a convoy to the 
Caribbean, HURST arrived Norfolk, Va., 29 November 1943 to 
join Escort Division 20.

	Assigned to the vital job of protecting ocean commerce 
from submarines, HURST departed Norfolk with her first 
convoy 14 December 1943, stopped at Casablanca, and returned 
to New York 24 January 1944.  She then conducted gunnery and 
antisubmarine warfare exercises in Casco Bay, Maine, before 
sailing with another convoy from New York 23 February.  
Enemy action was not the only hazard on such voyages as two 
days out of New York, merchant vessels EL COSTON and 
MURFREESBORO collided and sank during a heavy gale, the 
survivors being taken on board one of the ever-ready escort 
ships.  HURST reached Lisahally, Northern Ireland, 5 March 
1944, and 1 week later returned to New York with another 
convoy.

	HURST made no less than 10 more escort voyages from 
Boston or New York to ports in Northern Ireland and Great 
Britain before returning to New York 11 June 1945.  In this 
way she contributed mightily to winning the "Battle of the 
Atlantic".  After her final voyage, the destroyer escort 
sailed with her division for training in Chesapeake Bay and 
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Reassigned to the Pacific Fleet 
for these last months of the war, she transited the Panama 
Canal and arrived Pearl Harbor via San Diego 26 July 1945.  
There the ship took part in exercises with submarines and 
departed 27 August for the Samoan Islands.  Arriving Pago 
Pago 25 September, HURST spent the next weeks steaming among 
the small outlying islands of the Samoan, Fiji, and Society 
and other island groups, sending parties ashore to search 
for missing personnel and to investigate possible remaining 
enemy units.  Completing this painstaking duty, she departed 
Pago Pago 3 November 1945 and sailed for San Diego via Pearl 
Harbor.  She arrived San Diego 23 November and sailed 2 days 
later for New York via the Panama Canal.  HURST entered New 
York harbor 10 December 1945, sailed to Green Cove Springs, 
Fla., and then decommissioned there 1 May 1946.  She then 
entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs.  
In January 1947 HURST was transferred to Orange, Tex., where 
she remains.

	[Stricken from the Navy Register on 1 December 1972, 
HURST was transferred to Mexico on 1 October 1973.  Renamed 
frigate MANUEL AZUETA (A-06), then COMMODORO MANUEL AZUETA 
PERILLOS (E-30), she is currently used (May 1998) as the 
Gulf Fleet command training ship with all her ASW weapons 
and sensors removed.

K. Jack Bauer and Stephen S. Roberts, “Register of Ships of 
the U. S. Navy, 1775-1990,” p.225.
“Jane’s Fighting Ships, 1997-98,” p.440.
“The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, 
1998-99,” pp.511-512.]


Transcribed by Michael Hansen
mhansen2@attbi.com