Hiddensee in US Navy service
History
East Germany
Name	Rudolf Egelhofer
Namesake	Rudolf Egelhofer
Builder	Petrovsky Shipyard, Almaz Shipbuilding Company, Leningrad
Laid down	1984
Commissioned	1985
Fate	Removed museum status and sent for scrap in October 2023
Germany
Name	Hiddensee (P6166)
Namesake	Hiddensee
Acquired	1990
Decommissioned	April 1991
Fate	Transferred to United States, November 1991
United States
Name	USNS Hiddensee (185NS9201)
Acquired	November 1991
Commissioned	14 February 1992
Decommissioned	18 April 1996
Fate	Museum ship from 14 June 1997 Scrapped in October 2023
General characteristics
Class and type	Tarantul-class corvette
Displacement	480 long tons (488 t) standard 540 long tons (549 t) full load
Length	56 m (183 ft 9 in)
Beam	10.50 m (34 ft 5 in)
Draught	2.50 m (8 ft 2 in)
Propulsion	COGOG 2 × DR077 12,000 hp (8,948 kW) gas turbines 2 × DM076 4,000 hp (2,983 kW) gas turbines
Speed	42 knots (78 km/h; 48 mph)
Range	1,650 nmi (3,060 km; 1,900 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Endurance	10 days
Complement	50
Armament	1 × 76 mm AK-176 dual purpose main gun 2 × AK-630 30 mm gatling guns 4 × KT-138E P-15 Termit (SS-N-2 Styx) anti-ship missile launchers 1 × quad FAM-14 Strela 2 (SA-N-5) surface-to-air missile launcher 2 × PK-16 chaff launchers

Hiddensee was a Tarantul-class corvette. Originally a Soviet naval warship, the corvette was transferred first to the East German navy, then to the new unified German Navy, and ended her career in the United States as a non-commissioned naval ship. After decommissioning, she was later part of the Battleship Cove site at Fall River, Massachusetts as a museum ship, before being scrapped in 2023.

Ship history

The Tarantul I-class missile corvette was launched in 1984 at the Petrovsky Shipyard of Almaz Shipbuilding Company in Leningrad, Russian SFSR. She was commissioned in 1985 by the East German Volksmarine as Rudolf Egelhofer, but after the reunification of Germany in 1990, she was transferred to the German Navy and renamed Hiddensee.^[1]

After decommissioning in April 1991, she was transferred to the United States Navy. As USNS Hiddensee (185NS9201), the ship was extensively evaluated at the Naval Air Warfare Center at Solomons, Maryland, and used for naval exercises. Following naval budget cuts, the ship was removed from service in April 1996, and joined the Battleship Cove fleet on 14 June 1997.^[2]

Battleship Cove could not look after her due to lack of funding. Her hull deteriorated until the decision was made to remove her from the collection. She was quietly towed off to be scrapped in Bridgeport, Connecticut in early October 2023.^[3][4] The decision to scrap the ship came as a result of significant deterioration in the ship's hull, which would have necessitated a costly dry docking to repair. Chris Nardi, the Chief Operating Officer for Battleship Cove, also noted that "The Hiddensee, as designed by the Russian shipyard ... they were designed to be definitely disposable in terms of the way they were constructed", which also militated against trying to repair the vessel. In addition, two other vessels owned by the group, the submarine Lionfish and the destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. were already undergoing repairs at the time the decision was made.^[5]