USS Wake
USS "Wake" (PR-3) was a United States Navy river gunboat operating on the Yangtze River. Originally commissioned as the gunboat Guam" (PG-43), she was redesignated river patrol vessel PR-3 in 1928, and renamed Wake" 23 January 1941. She was captured by Japan on 8 December 1941 and renamed "Tatara". After her recapture in 1945, she was transferred to Chinese nationalists, who renamed her "Tai Yuan". Communist forces captured her in 1949, her final fate is unknown. Service history. U.S. Navy. She was launched on 28 May 1927 as "Guam" by the Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Works in Shanghai , China, and commissioned on 28 December 1927. Her primary mission was to ensure the safety of American missionaries and other foreigners. Later, the ship also functioned as a "radio spy ship," keeping track of Japanese movements. However, by 1939, she was "escorted" by a Japanese warship wherever she went, as China fell more and more under Imperial Japanese control. On 23 January 1941, she was renamed Wake, as "Guam" was to be the new name of a large cruiser being built in the U.S. On 25 November 1941, LCDR Andrew Earl Harris, the brother of Field Harris, was ordered to  close the Navy installation at Hankow, and sail to Shanghai. On 28 November 1941, LCDR Harris and most of the crew were transferred to gunboats and ordered to sail to the Philippines. Columbus Darwin Smith—an old China hand who had been piloting river boats on the Yangtze River—was asked to accept a commission in the U.S. Navy and was appointed captain of "Wake" with the rank of Lt. Commander. When Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941, Shanghai had been under Japanese occupation since the 1937 Battle of Shanghai. Smith was in command on 8 December 1941  (7 December in Hawaii), with a crew of 14, when the Japanese captured the ship, which was tied up at a pier in Shanghai. Smith had received a telephone call the night before from a Japanese officer he knew. The officer asked where Smith would be the next morning as he wanted to deliver some turkeys for Smith and his crew. The Japanese did the same to other American officers and officials so as to determine where they would be on 8 December. However, Commander Smith received word from his quartermaster about the Pearl Harbor attack and rushed to the  ship only to find it under guard by the Japanese. Surrounded by an overwhelming Japanese force, the crew attempted unsuccessfully to scuttle the craft. "Wake" surrendered, the only U.S. ship to do so in World War II. Commander Smith and his crew were confined to a prison camp near Shanghai, where the U.S. Marines and sailors captured on Wake Island were also later imprisoned. Japanese service. The Japanese gave "Wake" to their puppet Wang Jingwei regime in Nanjing, where she was renamed . The following activities are known to have occurred during the war. Post-war. In 1945, at the end  of the war, she was recaptured by the U.S. The U.S. gave the ship to the Chinese nationalists, who renamed her Tai Yuan (太原). Finally, the ship was captured by Communist Chinese forces in 1949. As of 2019, no other ship of the U.S. Navy has been named "Wake", though a launched in 1943 was named .