(BDE-12: dp. 1,140; l. 289’5”; b. 35’1”; dr. 10½’; s. 19½ k. (tl.); cpl. 156; a. 3 3”, 2 40mm., 10 20mm., 4 dcp., 1 dcp. (hh.), 2 dct.; cl. Evarts)
Capt. Richard Rundell Burges, RN, commanded HMS Ardent during the stubbornly fought naval engagement between British and Dutch forces at Camperdown on 11 October 1797. The British prevailed, but Capt. Burges was killed in the action.
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The name Burges was originally assigned to the Evarts-class destroyer escort, DE-16, initially allocated to the Royal Navy under lend-lease as BDE 16. Laid down on 14 March 1942 at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Burges was launched on 26 September under the sponsorship of Mrs. Ernest H. Wichels. After the reallocation of the warship to the United States Navy, she was renamed Edgar G. Chase (DE-16) (q.v.) on 19 February 1943.
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BDE-12 was laid down on 8 December 1942 by the Boston Navy Yard; later named Burges when Burges (BDE-16) was retained by the United States Navy and renamed Edgar G. Chase (DE-16); launched on 26 January 1943; transferred to the Royal Navy under the terms of the lend-lease agreement on 2 June 1943; and commissioned in the Royal Navy that same day.
Operating as a Royal Navy ship, Burges (K. 347) served in the Atlantic in late 1943 and early 1944. In 1944, she moved to a zone of operations in the North Sea. The last months of World War II saw her active in the English Channel. The destroyer escort was returned to the United States Navy at New York on 27 February 1946. She was determined to be surplus to the needs of the Navy, and her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 March 1946. In November 1946, she was sold to George H. Nutman, Inc., of Brooklyn, N.Y. She was scrapped on 31 July 1947.
Raymond A. Mann
22 November 2005
