Prudent PG-96

Prudent

(PG-96 : dp. 1,375 (f.); 1. 205'; b. 33'; dr. 14'6"; cpl. 87; s. 16 k.;
a. 2 3", 4 20mm., 2 det., 4 dcp., 1 dcp. (hh.); cl. Action)

Prudent (PG-96), originally projected as HMS Privet (CN314), wa.s laid down by the Morton Engine and Dry Dock Co. Ltd., Montreal, Que., 14 August 1942, Iaunehed 4 December 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Vineent Godfrey, delivered to the U.S. Navy 14 August 1943; and commissioned 16 August 1943, Lt. A. F. Pittman, U.S.C.G., in command.

Following shakedown off Bermuda, Prudent steamed to New York to begin a series of east enast—Cuba escort runs. Sailing with her first convoy 7 December 1943, she completed her 11th run, at New York, 21 December 1944. During January and into February 1945 she patrolled the sea lanes off the New England coast, then, on 20 February, departed New York on her last escort assignment to Guantanamo Bay. Returning to New York 15 March, she resumed patrol duties and for the remainder of the war in Europe plied the waters off the northeast coast.

Ordered inactivated at the end of the war, Prudent sailed south, 11 June, to Norfolk, thence to Charleston where she decommissioned 11 October 1945. Struck from the Navy List 1 November 1945, she was transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal 22 September 1947. In 1949 the ship was acquired by the Italian Navy and renamed bilbano. In 1951 she was converted to a hydrographie survey vessel and renamed a fourth time, Staffetta. Since that time, into 1970 she has continued to serve the Italian Navy under that name.