The PC-451 was the first of a pair of ships of the namesake class of experimental submarine chaser. The PC-451-class was designed under the Experimental Small Craft program and was initially labelled as the "X-Boat" to test out new designs and innovations. Laid down on 28 September 1939 at the DeFoe Boat and Motor Works in Bay City, Maine, and launched on 23 May 1940, the PC-451 differed from her sister ship, the PC-452 (later renamed to USS Castine (IX-211)), in that she used an experimental diesel-electric drive compared to the steam turbine used on her sister ship. She would serve uneventfully on the east coast of the US during World War II, aside from an incident where she accidentally rammed and sank the tugboat Nancy Moran on 26 December 1941 off the east coast of Florida. After the war, PC-451 was decommissioned on 2 December 1945 and struck from the naval register a year later, with her final fate unknown.

Introduced in Update 1.77 "Advancing Storm", the PC-451 is a significant departure from the low-tier PT boats, as instead of relying on high speed and agility, it relies on its durable steel-hulled construction and harder-hitting 3-inch gun to take out its smaller opposition. Although the 3-inch gun can be a bit tricky to handle at first, it offers significant improvement in terms of raw firepower when it scores a hit, with an additional set of Oerlikon autocannons to ward off PT boats or aircraft at closer range. Still, the PC-451 is still quite large for a ship with a “simple” damage model and therefore vulnerable to incoming fire, especially large-calibre cannons and torpedoes.