RVNS Pham Ngu Lao (HQ-15)

RVNS Pham Ngu Lao (HQ-17) was a South Vietnamese frigate of the Republic of Vietnam Navy in commission from 1972 to 1975. She and her six sister ships were the largest South Vietnamese naval ships of their time.

Construction and United States Navy service 1943-1947
Pham Ngu Lao was laid down in the United States by Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton, Washington, as the United States Navy Barnegat-class seaplane tender USS Absecon (AVP-23), but was converted during construction into an aircraft catapult training ship. Commissioned in January 1943, she served in Florida waters, training battleship and cruiser floatplane pilots in catapult launches and serving as a mobile target for torpedo practice by U.S. Navy torpedo planes. She was decommissioned in March 1947 and placed in reserve.

United States Coast Guard service 1946-1972
In 1949, the U.S. Navy loaned Absecon to the United States Coast Guard, which commissioned her as the Casco-class Coast Guard cutter USCGC Absecon (WAVP-374). Until 1972, she operated primarily in the North Atlantic Ocean on ocean stations, and also conducted search-and-rescue and law-enforcement operations. In 1966 she was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC-374, and was transferred permanently to the Coast Guard.

Acquisition and operations
After her antisubmarine warfare equipment had been removed, Absecon was transferred to South Vietnam on 15 July 1972 and was commissioned into the Republic of Vietnam Navy as the frigate RVNS Pham Ngu Lao (HQ-15) She was the last of seven former Casco-class cutters transferred to South Vietnam in 1971 and 1972. They were the largest warships in the South Vietnamese inventory, and their 5-inch (127-millimeter) guns were South Vietnam's largest naval guns. Pham Ngu Lao and her sisters fought alongside U.S. Navy ships during the final years of the Vietnam War, patrolling the South Vietnamese coast and providing gunfire support to South Vietnamese forces ashore.

Capture by North Vietnam
South Vietnam collapsed in late April 1975, bringing the Vietnam War to an end. Although all six of her sister ships fled to the Philippines, Pham Ngu Lao remained behind and was seized by North Vietnam in May 1975.

Socialist Republic of Vietnam service
North and South Vietnam unified to form the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the ship was commissioned into the unified country's Vietnamese People's Navy as PRVSN Pham Ngu Lao (HQ-01). Her status in that secretive navy is murky, but she is believed to have remained active into the 1990s and perhaps until as recently as 2000. She is now believed almost certainly to be decommissioned, although her current status is unknown.