Cte. Bauru - Be-4
Ex. Cannon-class Destroyer Escort USS McAnn (DE-179)
International Call Sign: November-Quebec-Charlie-Quebec
CTE Bauru is a fully-operational museum ship in non-commissioned service with the Marinha do Brasil, laid down for the US Navy in May 1943 as the 33rd member of the Cannon Class of Destroyer Escorts. Commissioned into US Navy service in October 1943 as the USS McAnn (DE-179), she joined the US Atlantic Fleet at Norfolk and promptly began convoy escort work along the US Eastern seaboard and Caribbean Sea Frontier.
Assigned to patrol and escort duties off the Brazilian coast in early 1944, the McAnn was one of seven members of her class selected for Lend-Lease transfer to the Brazilian Navy, and following an overhaul at Santos she was decommissioned from USN service on August 15th, 1944. Activated for duty with the Brazilian Navy that day as the Bauru (D18), the Destroyer Escort resumed her patrol, escort and anti-submarine warfare role off Brazil's coast through the end of the Second World War.
Forming part of the backbone of the Marinha do Brasil's postwar blue water navy, Bauru and her sisters served with distinction for the next thirty years before their advancing age and attrition from serving as frontline assets began to take their toll on the vessels. Bauru herself soldiered on into the 1980's in the role of a training vessel and by the time she decommissioned from frontline service in 1981 she had become the longest-serving member of her class. Selected to serve as a museum ship for her class, Brazil's contribution to the Second World War, the Bauru was fully overhauled before being emplaced as a museum ship at Parque do Flamengo in Rio de Janiero in 1982.
Maintained in fully operational but demilitarized status, the Bauru made several cruises to Brazilian ports during her third career from her new homeport, the last of which occurred in 1985 when the ship called at Salvador. Subsequently transferred from her original homeport to her current location at Berth 22 at the Brazilian Navy Cultural Center, the Bauru joined the museum Submarine Riachuelo (S22) where she remains on public display.
