Hiddensee is a former East German Navy

Volksmarine

Volksmarine was the official designation of the maritime forces of the German Democratic Republic . It was part of the National People's Army, established in 1956.-History:...

 corvette

Corvette

A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...

 now part of the Battleship Cove

Battleship Cove

Battleship Cove, located in Fall River, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit maritime museum and war memorial that traces its origins to the wartime crew of the World War II battleship . This dedicated veterans group was responsible for the donation of the decommissioned vessel from the Navy and its...

 site in Fall River, Massachusetts

Fall River, Massachusetts

Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located about south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and west of New Bedford and south of Taunton. The city's population was 88,857 during the 2010 census, making it the tenth largest city in...

.

Originally commissioned by the Volksmarine as the Rudolf Egelhofer, the Hiddensee is a built at the Petrovsky Shipyard in 1984, located near the Soviet city of Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 (formerly Leningrad). An example of a Soviet-built missile corvette, Hiddensee was designed to oppose any naval threat to the East German Coast, and to fulfill this mission carried long-range STYX anti-ship missiles and an array of defensive weapons designed to ensure her own survival.

Following the reunification of Germany

German reunification

German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...

, the Hiddensee served with the Federal German Navy until her decommissioning in April 1991. Shortly thereafter she was reactivated and transferred to the U.S. Navy. Joined briefly by a crew of 20 former East German sailors, a small civilian U. S. crew conducted extensive testing with the vessel at the Navy's Solomons, Maryland

Solomons, Maryland

Solomons is a community and census-designated place in Calvert County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,536 at the 2000 census...

, facility in the Patuxent River. After 50 underway deployments in the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 and Virginia Capes

Virginia Capes

The Virginia Capes are the two capes, Cape Charles to the north and Cape Henry to the south, that define the entrance to Chesapeake Bay on the eastern coast of North America....

areas, Navy budget cutback severely curtailed operations, but she continued on as a research vessel until April 1996.

The Hiddensee joined the Battleship Cove fleet in Fall River on June 14, 1997. She is moored on the port side of the .

External links

• Hiddensee Photos on board the Soviet Missile Corvette Hiddensee at the Battleship Cove Naval Museum in Fall River, MA