1.
USS Medusa (AR-1)
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USS Medusa was the United States Navys first purpose-built repair ship. She served in the U. S. Navy from 1924 to 1946, authorized as part of the naval programs of 1916 and 1918, Medusa was laid down at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, on 2 January 1920. She was launched on 16 April 1923, sponsored by Mrs. Burns Poe, prior to the commissioning of Medusa, U. S. Navy repair ships had been converted for that purpose. As the U. S. Navy began to grow in size during the World War I years, the Department of the Navy designed Medusa with an eye toward at least equalling the repair facilities of the repair ship Vestal, which had been converted from a collier. Medusa was conceived as primarily a tender for battleship divisions, and so was given a speed,1, she was redesignated AR-1 when the Navy assigned alphanumeric hull numbers to all of its ships on 17 July 1920. Her machinery shops equipment included lathes, radial drills, milling machines, slotting machines, boring machines, optical equipment, armature bake ovens. To meet additional demands from the fleet, she had a motion picture shop, large laundry and bakery facilities and she also embarked two officers and 20 enlisted men from aviation Observation Squadron 2 to repair floatplanes based on battleships and cruisers. Medusa spent her career with the United States Pacific Fleet. Upon commissioning in 1924, she was home-ported at San Pedro, California and assigned to Train Squadron 2, Base Force and she performed her duties out of San Pedro until World War II. Medusa first demonstrated her capability to keep up and support the fleet in 1925, in the late 1920s, Medusa stepped outside her normal repair duties to play a transport role. On 11 May 1927 she departed San Pedro carrying seven officers and 78 enlisted men of the U. S. Marine Corpss Marine Observation Squadron 4, in July 1928, she again carried Marines to Nicaragua, this time in company with storeship Bridge. Medusa continued her support duties out of San Pedro until mid-August 1941. She was there on 7 December 1941 when Imperial Japanese Navy carrier aircraft attacked, with her commanding officer ashore, her repair officer, Lieutenant Commander John F. P. Miller, took command. Medusa fired on a Japanese Type A midget submarine she sighted in the harbor, medusas antiaircraft machine gunners claimed two Japanese Aichi D3A1 dive bombers shot down during the attack. S. On 1 March 1942, the Base Force was redesignated the Service Force, now a Service Force unit, Medusa continued to aid the clean-up at Pearl Harbor. On 4 April 1943, Medusa got underway for the combat area and she arrived at Havannah Harbor at Efate in the New Hebrides on 20 April 1943, relieving repair ship Rigel there on 24 April 1943. She operated at Efate for the next 11 months, temporarily deploying to Espiritu Santo from 24 July 1943 to 4 August 1943 to fashion a temporary bow for the light cruiser Honolulu. On 27 March 1944, Medusa departed Efate for a series of shorter assignments
2.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
3.
Auxiliary ship
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An auxiliary ship is a naval ship which is designed to operate in any number of roles supporting combatant ships and other naval operations. Auxiliaries are not primary combatants, although they may have some limited combat capacity, auxiliaries are extremely important for navies of all sizes, as without them, the primary fleet vessels can not be effective. Thus, nearly every navy maintains a fleet of auxiliaries. However, the composition and size of these auxiliary fleets varies depending on the nature of each navy, smaller coastal navies tend to have smaller auxiliary vessels focusing primarily on littoral and training support roles. Larger blue-water navies tend to have large auxiliary fleets comprising longer-range fleet support vessels designed to provide support far beyond territorial waters, replenishment One of the most direct ways that auxiliaries support the fleet is by providing underway replenishment to major fleet units. This allows the fleet to remain on station, with the replenishment vessels bringing up fuel, ammunition, food, oilers are vessels specifically designed to bring fuel oil to the fleet, while the earlier Colliers supplied coal burning steamships. Tenders are specifically designed to support a type of smaller naval unit, most often submarines or seaplanes, transport Supporting forward operating bases requires immense transportation capacity. Transports are often converted merchant ships commissioned into naval service. Tankers are transports specifically designed to ship fuel to forward locations, transports are often employed not only carrying cargo for naval support, but in support of all forces of a nations military. In particular, troopships are used to large number of soldiers to operational theatres. Some transport ships are highly specialized, like the ships employed by the US Navy. Repair vessels range from small equipment ships to floating dry docks and these vessels also help maintain the harbor by dredging channels, maintaining jetties and buoys, and even providing floating platforms for port defense weapons. List of auxiliaries of the United States Navy List of auxiliary ship classes in service Cutler, Deborah W. Cutler, morris, Christopher G. Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology. Media related to Auxiliary ships at Wikimedia Commons
4.
Maintenance, repair and operations
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Maintenance, repair, and operations involves fixing any sort of mechanical, plumbing, or electrical device should it become out of order or broken. In the former case it may be an operation within a larger organization or smaller operation. The former of these represents a closed loop supply chain and usually has the scope of maintenance, repair, the latter of the categorisations is an open loop supply chain and is typified by refurbishment and remanufacture. The main characteristic of the loop system is that the demand for a product is matched with the supply of a used product. Neglecting asset write-offs and exceptional activities the total population of the product between the customer and the service provider remains constant, for material – all action taken to retain material in a serviceable condition or to restore it to serviceability. It includes inspection, testing, servicing, classification as to serviceability, repair, rebuilding, for material – all supply and repair action taken to keep a force in condition to carry out its mission. For material – the routine recurring work required to keep a facility in such condition that it may be used, at its original or designed capacity. Manufacturers and industrial-supply companies often refer to MRO as opposed to original equipment manufacturer, OEM includes any activity related to the direct manufacture of goods, where MRO refers to any maintenance, repair or overhaul activity to keep a manufacturing plant or facility running. Maintenance is strictly connected to the stage of ideation, in which the concept of maintainability must be included, overhaul extends to the concept of improving performance over and above original design specification. Corrective maintenance where equipment is repaired or replaced after wear, malfunction or break down, preventive maintenance is maintenance performed with the intent of avoiding failures, safety violations, unnecessary production costs and losses, and to conserve original materials of fabrication. The effectiveness of a maintenance schedule depends on the RCM analysis which it was based on
5.
Warship
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A warship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to damage and are usually faster. Unlike a merchant ship, which carries cargo, a warship typically carries weapons, ammunition. Warships usually belong to a navy, though they have also operated by individuals, cooperatives. In wartime, the distinction between warships and merchant ships is often blurred, in war, merchant ships are often armed and used as auxiliary warships, such as the Q-ships of the First World War and the armed merchant cruisers of the Second World War. Until the 17th century it was common for merchant ships to be pressed into naval service, until the threat of piracy subsided in the 19th century, it was normal practice to arm larger merchant ships such as galleons. Warships have also often used as troop carriers or supply ships. The development of catapults in the 4th century BC and the subsequent refinement of technology enabled the first fleets of artillery-equipped warships by the Hellenistic age. During late antiquity, ramming fell out of use and the galley tactics against other ships used during the Middle Ages until the late 16th century focused on boarding. Naval artillery was redeveloped in the 14th century, but cannon did not become common at sea until the guns were capable of being reloaded quickly enough to be reused in the same battle. The size of a required to carry a large number of cannons made oar-based propulsion impossible. The sailing man-of-war emerged during the 16th century, by the middle of the 17th century, warships were carrying increasing numbers of cannon on their broadsides and tactics evolved to bring each ships firepower to bear in a line of battle. The man-of-war now evolved into the ship of the line, in the 18th century, the frigate and sloop-of-war – too small to stand in the line of battle – evolved to convoy trade, scout for enemy ships and blockade enemy coasts. During the 19th century a revolution took place in the means of propulsion, naval armament. Marine steam engines were introduced, at first as an auxiliary force, the Crimean War gave a great stimulus to the development of guns. The introduction of explosive shells soon led to the introduction of iron, the first ironclad warships, the French Gloire and British Warrior, made wooden vessels obsolete. Metal soon entirely replaced wood as the material for warship construction
6.
Destroyer tender
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A destroyer tender, or destroyer depot ship in British English, is an auxiliary ship designed to provide maintenance support to a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships. The use of class has faded from its peak in the first half of the 20th century as the roles of small combatants have evolved. As the industrial revolution progressed, steam-powered steel ships replaced sail-powered wooden ships, the first large warship to be sunk by a torpedo was the Chilean ironclad Blanco Encalada in 1891. These torpedo boat destroyers were so full of machinery, coal, quick-firing guns, Destroyer tenders with berthing and dining accommodations for the destroyer crews joined the fleet train of colliers accompanying the battle fleet. The destroyer tenders also carried cooks, administrative and medical personnel, although individual destroyers were too small for these specialized personnel, the skills of those aboard the tender were available to the whole destroyer flotilla. The tender also carried a supply of parts for destroyer machinery. When the Great White Fleet circled the globe in 1907, it was accompanied by a tender, the USS Yankton, and a repair ship, repair ships carried a fully equipped machine shop and foundry capable of completing any repair not requiring a drydock. Destroyer displacement had increased to 1,000 tons by World War I, United States destroyer tenders of World War II carried some destroyer ammunition and depth charges, and performed torpedo maintenance and resupply, but focused on repair work. These tenders operated stills and electric generators to supply fresh water, each increment of size enabled destroyers to carry more of the personnel and equipment previously found on the tender. Destroyers reached the size of cruisers during the war. Surviving tenders became functionally indistinguishable from repair ships, some destroyer tenders were designed and built to attend a flotilla of destroyers, while others were converted from ships built for other purposes. Tabled below is a comparison of ships designed as destroyer tenders, List of United States Navy Destroyer Tenders Submarine tender Blackman, cooney, David M. Ships, Aircraft and Weapons of the United States Navy. The Ships and Aircraft of the U. S. Fleet, British and Dominion Warships of World War II. Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company, garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company
7.
Submarine tender
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A submarine tender is a type of ship that supplies and supports submarines. The tender carries all these, and either meets up with the submarines at sea to replenish them or provides these services while docked at a port near the area where the submarines are operating. In some navies, the tenders were equipped with workshops for maintenance, unable to operate conventional surface tenders during World War II, Nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine used Type XIV submarines for replenishment at sea. With the increased size and automation of modern submarines, plus in some navies the introduction of nuclear power, in the United States Navy, submarine tenders are considered auxiliaries, with hull classification symbol AS. As of 2015, the Navy only maintains two such tenders, USS Emory S, the Russian Navy decommissioned all its Don and Ugra class tenders inherited from the Soviet Navy by 2001. The last remaining ship of class was the INS Amba. She was reportedly decommissioned from service in July 2006, destroyer tender Jonas Pleškys, a Soviet Navy captain who defected with his submarine tender
8.
Seaplane tender
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A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. In maritime parlance a tender is a vessel that is used to support the operation of other vessels, in British usage, the term tender was used for small craft, with the term depot ship being used for large sea going vessels. Flying boats and float planes even when based at home in ports, British tenders were small craft of launch to pinnace size. All those functions that on land would require wheeled ground support equipment had a need for a watercraft equivalent. e and those functions which in a land based airfield would be fulfilled by buildings. The first seaplane carrier appeared in 1911 with the French Navy La Foudre, La Foudre carried float-equipped planes under hangars on the main deck, from where they were lowered on the sea with a crane. La Foudre was further modified in November 1913 with a 10 m -long flat deck to launch her seaplanes, another early seaplane carrier was HMS Hermes, an old cruiser converted and commissioned with a flying-off deck in mid-1913. However, HMS Ark Royal was the first ship in history designed, in the Battle of Tsingtao, from 5 September 1914, the Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane carrier Wakamiya conducted the worlds first naval-launched air raids from Kiaochow Bay. The four Maurice Farman seaplanes bombarded German-held land targets and damaged a German minelayer in the Tsingtao peninsula from September to 6 November 1914, when the Germans surrendered. On Christmas Day 1914, the British carried out the Cuxhaven Raid and these carriers had hangars for storing and maintaining the aircraft, but no flight deck as in a true aircraft carrier. Instead, they used cranes to lower the aircraft into the sea for takeoff, the ships were normally converted merchant vessels rather than specially constructed for the task. As aircraft improved the problems of using seaplanes became more of a handicap, the aircraft could only be operated in a smooth sea and the ship had to stop for launching or recovery, both of which took around 20 minutes. The tender was often stationed 10 mi or so in front of the battle fleet with the cruiser screen so that it would not fall hopelessly behind when it launched its aircraft. Seaplanes also had poorer performance than other aircraft because of the drag, the British HMS Ark Royal was a seaplane tender with a flying-off deck. In the inter-war years, it was common for cruisers and battleships to be equipped with catapult-launched reconnaissance seaplanes, a few navies — especially those without true aircraft carriers — also acquired catapult-equipped seaplane carriers for fleet reconnaissance. During the Second World War, both the American and the Japanese Navies built a number of tenders to supplement their aircraft carrier fleets. However, these often had their catapults removed, and were used as support vessels that operated seaplanes from harbours rather than in a seaway. These aircraft were generally for long range reconnaissance patrols, nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine in World War II did not operate any seaplane tenders. However, the Luftwaffe had nineteen seaplane tenders and these ships were mostly converted from existing civilian seaplane tenders, and were capable of carrying 1-3 seaplanes
9.
Depot ship
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Depot ships may be identified as tenders in American English. Depot ships may be designed for their purpose or be converted from another purpose. Depot ships provide services unavailable from local naval base shore facilities, industrialized countries may build naval bases with extensive workshops, warehouses, barracks, and medical and recreation facilities. Depot ships operating within such bases may provide more than command staff offices. Services provided by a depot ship depend upon whether typical client warship missions are measured in hours, or days, or weeks. A warship crew may be expected to remain at their stations for missions measured in hours, but longer missions may require provisions for dining, sleeping, the crew of small warships may carry individual combat rations and urinate or defecate from the weather deck. Longer missions typically require storage provisions for drinking water and preserved food, cooking may be limited to warming food on an exhaust vent, and buckets may be used for bathing, laundry, and sanitary waste. Depot ships are similar to repair ships, but provide a range of services to a smaller portion of the fleet. Depot ships undertake repair work for a flotilla of small warships, depot ships also provide personnel and resupply services for their flotilla. Some depot ships may transport their short-range landing or attack craft from home ports to launch near the scene of battle. The following summary of World War II depot ships indicates the range of locations and warships served, the survey ship HMS Endeavour served as a depot ship for boom defence in Singapore and the Mediterranean Sea. Requisitioned merchant ships HMS Aberdonian and Vienna and the French Belfort were used as ships for Coastal Forces of the Royal Navy. Aberdonian started at Fort William, Scotland, but spent most of the war at Dartmouth, Devon, the Loch-class frigates Loch Assynt and Loch Torridon became coastal forces depot ships HMS Derby Haven and Woodbridge Haven, respectively. USS Alcor served in the Pacific after conversion from a ship in 1944. USS Altair served in the Atlantic, USS Black Hawk was with the Asiatic Fleet in 1941 and transferred to Alaska for the remainder of the war. HMS Blenheim served with the Home Fleet, at Iceland, USS Cascade USS Denebola served in the Atlantic. USS Dixie served in the Pacific, USS Dobbin served in the Pacific. HMS Greenwich served in Scapa Flow, Canada, Iceland, USS Hamul HMS Hecla was based at Greenock and Iceland before being sunk in the Mediterranean during Operation Torch
10.
United States Asiatic Fleet
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The United States Asiatic Fleet was a fleet of the United States Navy during much of the first half of the 20th century. Before World War II, the fleet patrolled the Philippine Islands, the fleet was created when its predecessor, the Asiatic Squadron, was upgraded to fleet status in 1902. In early 1907, the fleet was downgraded and became the First Squadron of the United States Pacific Fleet, however, on 28 January 1910, the ships of that squadron were again organized as the Asiatic Fleet. In 1904, all armored cruisers were withdrawn from the Far East, gunboats patrolled the Yangtze River in the Yangtze Patrol. After Rear Admiral Charles J. Train became commander-in-chief of the fleet in March 1905, when the Asiatic Fleet landed 40 United States Marines to rescue the officers, the villagers attacked them with pitchforks and the Marines fired two shots. Local Chinese officials refused to return the guns, but Train. The governor of Nanking later apologized for the actions, returned the American officers guns. On 4 August 1906, Train died in Yantai, China, in early 1907, the Asiatic Fleet was abolished, and its ships and personnel became the First Squadron of the United States Pacific Fleet. On 28 January 1910, the United States Asiatic Fleet was reestablished, in December 1922, when the U. S. Navy was restructured, with the U. S. Pacific Fleet and United States Atlantic Fleet combining to form a unified United States Fleet, the Asiatic Fleet remained a separate entity and was charged with defending the Philippines and Guam and with upholding the Open Door Policy in China. The visit was unsuccessful in deterring further Japanese military operations in either area, on 25 July 1939, Admiral Thomas C. Hart was appointed the commander-in-chief of the fleet. It was based at Cavite Naval Base and Olongapo Naval Station on Luzon, on 22 July 1941, the Mariveles Naval Base was completed and the Asiatic Fleet began to use it as well. Hart had permission to withdraw to the Indian Ocean, in the event of war with Japan, harts submarines, commanded by Commander, Submarines, Asiatic Fleet Captain John E. Wilkes were six elderly S-class submarines and seven Porpoises. In October 1941,12 Salmons or Sargos—in Captain Stuart Sunshine Murrays Submarine Division 15 and Captain Joseph A. Connollys Submarine Division 16, walter E. Red Doyle was assigned as Wilkes relief. When war began, Doyles inexperience in Asian waters meant Wilkes remained de facto COMSUBAF, problems were encountered almost from the beginning. No boats were placed in Lingayen Gulf, widely expected to be where the Japanese would land, in the event, several S-boats, nor were any boats off ports of Japanese-held Formosa, despite more than a weeks warning of impending hostilities. Successes were few in the days of the war. The classic film The Sand Pebbles is a dramatization on the life of the China Sailors, the U. S. military also created several awards and decorations to recognize those personnel who had performed duty in China
11.
Philippines
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The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
12.
Collier (ship)
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A collier is a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. Coaling at sea was critical to navies and speed of transfer was an important metric of naval efficiency. In 1883, forty tons an hour was considered fast and it would take twelve hours to restock half the bunkers of a typical ship. Sir Charles Palmer pioneered the construction of iron-hulled steam colliers at his Jarrow shipyard, the iron colliers had ballast tanks which meant water could simply be pumped in, greatly reducing the turnaround time as the sand no longer needed to be loaded and unloaded. Coal was also exported to Europe, and wooden colliers returned with such as roofing tiles in their holds. The first Palmer-built iron hulled steam collier was SS John Bowes of 1852, there had been an earlier iron hull screw propelled collier, the short-lived SS Bedlington of 1841 built in South Shields. A notable incident involving a collier occurred not long after the opening of the Victoria Tunnel in Newcastle, the hemp rope which controlled the speed of wagons descending the tunnel to the river from Spital Tongues Colliery snapped, and the wagons landed in the Tyne. The wagons were recovered at low tide, the rope was repaired, six months later, the rope snapped again, and the wagons landed in the hold of a waiting collier and sank it. After this, it was decided a wire rope would be a better option and this is probably the only recorded incident of a train having sunk a ship. Some had spouts used for unscreened or small coal, others known as drops had steep inclines at the end, down which a wagon would be lowered directly into the hold, some had both drops and spouts. The drops and spouts could be raised and lowered with the tide, later, elevators began to be introduced, such as those at Bates Staithes in Blyth, Northumberland and Harton Low Staithes in South Shields. The largely intact Dunston Staithes on the Tyne are an example of this type. In Scotland, a system was common where wagons would be placed on a cradle and lifted into the hold of the ship, the men who worked at the staithes were known as teemers and trimmers. The trimmers worked in the hold, spreading and levelling the coal with shovels and this was a dangerous job, as the holds could fill with firedamp given off by the coal, resulting in an explosion. More modern systems are designed to be able to distribute the coal without the need for men working in the holds of the ships. The wharf at Battersea Power Station is still extant, and the used for unloading the coal can be seen on the riverfront. These are fitted with buckets and in operation loaded a hopper. The modern equivalent can be seen at the Tyne Coal Terminal, USS Langley, the first aircraft carrier in the United States Navy, was a converted collier
13.
USS Prometheus (AR-3)
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USS Prometheus was a repair ship that served the United States Navy during World War I and World War II. Ontario served with a merchant complement until she decommissioned on 7 April 1913 to undergo conversion to a repair ship, after conversion, she recommissioned 23 December 1914 as USS Prometheus. While at Bermuda she was ordered to join the Naval forces at Brest, France to provide repair services, upon arrival at New York she was assigned to Battleship Force 1 for duty in conjunction with the upkeep of vessels engaged in overseas transportation of troops. She was classified as AR-3 on 17 July 1920, Prometheus sailed from New York on 1 September 1920 with orders to tow the USS Connecticut, disabled at Cuba, to Philadelphia. For her performance in this assignment she was commended by the Commander-in-Chief, Prometheus made additional cruises to Cuba in 1921 and 1923 while operating with the Atlantic Fleet. Prometheus transferred to the west coast early in 1923, arriving at San Pedro and she operated along the Pacific coast as far north as Washington, until she decommissioned on 4 October 1924 at Bremerton. Her only breaks, from a demand of hard work from her crew, came on infrequent trips to Sydney. She received orders on 25 September to proceed to Kossol Passage and she opened fire with her 3/50 caliber deck gun and sunk the sub. She and her crew suffered no damage, Prometheus departed Kossol on 21 January 1945 and moved to the now famous Ulithi anchorage to help ready the Fleet for the Iwo Jima campaign and the Okinawa strikes. By 19 February she had moved again to San Pedro Bay, Prometheus continued her rigorous schedule at Okinawa and Hong Kong during the Asian occupation, returning to San Francisco at the year’s end. At San Francisco she performed decommissioning work on vessels sent there for disposal until she, herself, Prometheus was delivered to the WSA and simultaneously to the Maritime Commission Reserve Fleet for lay up on 16 July at Puget Sound, Washington. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 31 July, by 26 August 1949 she had been completely stripped, and she was sold on 29 August 1950 to Zidell Shipwrecking Company and subsequently scrapped. Prometheus earned one star for Pacific service in World War II. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Collier No.2 Ontario / Repair Ship No.2 / AR-3 Prometheus, list of auxiliaries of the United States Navy
14.
USS Vestal
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USS Vestal was a repair ship in service with the United States Navy from 1913 to 1946. Before her conversion to a ship, she had served as a collier since 1909. The Vestal served in both World Wars and she was damaged during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and received two battle stars for her World War II service. Y. Launched on 19 May 1908, Vestal was placed in service as a collier, with a civilian crew. Vestal served the fleet as a collier, operating along the Atlantic coast and in the West Indies from the autumn of 1909 to the summer of 1910. After a voyage to Europe to coal ships of the Atlantic Fleet in those waters, the ship underwent nearly a years worth of yard work and was commissioned as a fleet repair ship in 1913 under the command of Commander Edward L. Beach, Sr. USN. After fitting out, Vestal departed her conversion yard on 26 October for Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she conducted her shakedown between 29 October to 10 November. After touching at Key West, Florida, for coal on 14 November, Vestal moved on to Pensacola, Florida, her base for operations as a repair ship for the Atlantic Fleet. The auxiliary vessel provided repair services at Vera Cruz from 2 May to 20 September before she sailed for Boston, as of December 1914, Commander U. T. Holmes was the officer and Lieutenant Commander L. J. Connelly performed as executive officer. Oberlin and F. M. Perkins serving as staff officers, Vestal then operated off the Virginia Capes and in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before she returned to the Boston Navy Yard on 10 June 1915, after calls at New York City and Newport, R. I. She took on stores and provisions at Boston and underwent repairs there before she rejoined the fleet at Narragansett Bay on 19 May 1916. Following the U. S. entry into World War I and she stayed there for the duration of the war and beyond, finally returning in 1919. For the next six years Vestal served the Scouting Force and Battle Fleet, during the navy-wide assignment of alphanumeric hull numbers on 17 July 1920, Vestal was classified as a repair ship, AR-4. In 1925 she underwent modification that changed her from a ship to an oil-fired one. Soon thereafter, on 25 September, the submarine USS S-51 was rammed and sunk by the SS City of Rome, Vestal conducted her salvage operations from October to early December 1925 and again from 27 April to 5 July 1926. During the latter period, the submarine was raised from her watery grave, following the completion of recovery, Vestal was transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1927. The Pacific Fleet was shifted to a new base at Pearl Harbor following Fleet Problem XXI in the spring of 1940, Vestal also made the move and served there until the outbreak of war following the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941
15.
USS Bridgeport (AD-10)
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USS Bridgeport was a destroyer tender in the United States Navy during World War I and the years after. She was a twin-screw, steel-hulled passenger and cargo steamship built in 1901 at Vegesack, Breslau was one of the seven ships of the Köln class of ships built for the Bremen to Baltimore and Galveston route. Interned at New Orleans, Louisiana at the outbreak of World War I, Breslau was seized in 1917 by the United States after her entry into the war, originally slated to be a repair ship, she was reclassified as a destroyer tender the following year. Bridgeport completed several transatlantic convoy crossings before she was stationed at Brest, France, after returning to the United States in November 1919, she spent the next five years along the East Coast and in the Caribbean tending destroyers and conducting training missions. She was decommissioned in November 1924 and placed in reserve at the Boston Navy Yard, the ship was selected for employment as a Hague Convention hospital ship and renamed USAHS Larkspur. She made three trips to the United Kingdom before an extended tour of duty in the Mediterranean. In January 1946, she was converted into transport ship USAT Bridgeport, destined for returning war brides and she continued in this role until laid up in the Reserve Fleet at Brunswick, Georgia, in 1947. Bridgeport was sold as surplus in February 1948 and broken up for later that year at Mobile. Breslau was built in 1901 by the Bremer Vulkan yard at Vegesack for the North German Lloyd line as the fourth of seven ships of the Köln class. The Köln-class ships, all named after German cities, were designed for the Bremen to Baltimore and Galveston route, the Köln-class steerage compartments had portholes for better light and ventilation than was typical, and included cabins that housed from four to ten passengers. Köln-class ships were designed to carry large freight loads on return voyages to Germany, with holds customized for carrying wheat. Breslau was a 7, 524-ton steel-hulled vessel built with twin quadruple expansion engines that generated 3,600 horsepower. Her length as built was 136.36 meters with a beam of 16.46 meters and she had a single funnel, two masts, was outfitted with an awning deck, and was staffed by 94 to 120 crew members, depending upon the route and season. After launching on 14 August 1901, Breslau sailed to New York on her voyage on 23 November of that same year. In April 1902, she sailed on the Bremen to Baltimore route for the first time, in March 1910, the liner was moved to the Bremen–Philadelphia run. On 20 July 1913, while making a stop in Hoboken, New Jersey. Breslau made a departure into the Hudson River, during which time the blaze was extinguished. The ship was not damaged and none of the 1,500 passengers aboard were injured in the incident, the ship left for Philadelphia on schedule the next day
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USS Vulcan (AR-5)
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USS Vulcan was the lead ship of her class of repair ships of the United States Navy. Following her shakedown cruise to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Guantanamo Bay, assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Train on the 20th, the repair ship departed Philadelphia the following day and proceeded, via Casco Bay, Maine, to Argentia, Newfoundland. By this time, the Atlantic Fleet was becoming fully involved in the Battle of the Atlantic. At the United States — and had established bases at the ports of Reykjavík. Marine wags soon nicknamed these places Rinky Dink and Valley Forge, accordingly, the unit – designated Task Force 4 and based around Wasp — sailed from Argentia on 23 September. Besides the valuable carrier, the force included Mississippi, Wichita, Vulcan, a German U-boat, prowling to the southwest of Iceland, sighted the ships on the 26th, but could not keep up with or identify the Americans. Having outpaced their adversary, TF4 reached Valley Forge on 28 September, while Tirpitz did not sortie, the U-boats continued their deadly forays against Allied shipping. By the fall of 1941, American destroyers were engaged in convoy operations half-way across the Atlantic, on 4 September, Greer narrowly avoided being torpedoed after attacking a German U-boat. During the midwatch on 17 October 1941, U-568 torpedoed Kearny while the latter was screening Convoy SC-48, with 11 bluejackets dead, Kearny limped into Reykjavík, a gaping hole and buckled plating disfiguring her starboard side below and aft of the bridge. Vulcan provided timely and effective assistance to the stricken warship, since permanent repair facilities – such as a drydock – were nonexistent, Kearny pulled up alongside the repair vessel, and her port side was flooded to raise the torpedo hole above water level. Soon, Vulcans repair force had cut away the damaged plating and had fixed a patch, by Christmas 1941, Kearny could sail for the east coast and permanent repairs at Boston. Operations in these inhospitable climes posed natural dangers as well – fog and storms frequently hampered operations, in November, Niblack was rammed by a Norwegian freighter. The destroyer had been scouring Icelands coastal waters for a straying Icelandic merchant vessel when the accident occurred, costing Niblack an anchor, Vulcan swiftly fixed the damage and patched the side, enabling the destroyer to resume her vital escort duties. Vulcan remained in Icelands chill and barren area into the spring of 1942, meanwhile, on 7 December 1941, a Japanese task force had struck Pearl Harbor and severely crippled the battleships of the Pacific Fleet, plunging the United States into war on both oceans. Vulcan — bound for home in company with Tarazed, Livermore, there, the repair ship underwent a drydocking before she returned northward to support the Fleets operations in the North Atlantic. Based at Argentia from 16 June to 14 November, Vulcan shifted to Hvalfjörður and she remained at Valley Forge until she got underway on 6 April 1943, bound via Derry, Northern Ireland, for Hampton Roads. After repairs at Norfolk from 8 to 22 June, Vulcan headed for the Mediterranean and arrived at Oran, Algeria, shifting to Algiers in late June, Vulcan sent a fire and rescue party to the burning British ammunition ship Arrow. Three Vulcan sailors brought a boat alongside the vessel and cut through her side plating to rescue British sailors trapped below decks
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USS Ajax (AR-6)
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USS Ajax, in service 1943 to 1986, was the second Vulcan-class repair ship and the fourth ship in the United States Navy to bear the name. Laid down in 1941, launched in 1942 and commissioned in 1943 it was decommissioned in 1986, Ajax received four battle stars for Korean War service and five campaign stars for service in Vietnam. The ship was part of the clean up of the Pearl Harbor attack, on 8 January 1944, an oil fire in her blacksmith shop threatened the entire ship, but was extinguished. Nevertheless, Ajax spent part of January repairing her own damage, upon completing that mission, the ship returned to Funafuti on 26 February, only to sail three days later for Majuro. While she was serving there, Service Squadron 4 was absorbed by ServRon 10, there, she and Vestal repaired combatant ships through the Hollandia strikes and during preparations for the Marianas campaign. On 13 June, she sailed for Eniwetok to help set up a repair base where she labored through August, at one time working extensive jobs on 19 cruisers. Late in August, bacillary dysentery broke out among the crew, the ship was quarantined on 1 September and detached on 9 September to proceed to Kwajalein to combat the epidemic. Quarantine ended on 10 October, and Ajax steamed to Ulithi to resume repair work, severely damaged during a torpedo attack off Formosa, Canberra received sufficient temporary repairs alongside Ajax to enable the cruiser to continue on to Manus. The repair ship continued her work at Ulithi in support of operations in the Philippines, Iwo Jima, on 25 May 1945, Ajax headed for San Pedro Bay, Leyte Gulf, to help prepare for the final assault on Japan, spending July repairing typhoon-battered Bennington. The job consisted of rebuilding the section of her flight deck and required assistance from Basilan, Baham. Upon learning of Japans capitulation on 15 August, Ajax began readying amphibious, on 20 September, she sailed for Guiuan, Samar, embarked troops for passage to Okinawa, and once there, repaired other typhoon-damaged ships. Ironically, while she was carrying out this task, typhoons forced her to go to sea herself on 28 September, but for these two incidents, her work at Okinawa was uninterrupted until 28 November, when she sailed for the United States with 800 passengers. She arrived at San Diego on 18 December and, three days later, entered the San Francisco Naval Shipyard for a six-week overhaul. The yard work ended on 23 February 1946, and Ajax sailed via Pearl Harbor for the Bikini Atoll to participate in the bomb tests to be held there in July. The first bomb was dropped 8 miles away from the ship, the crew men were instructed to stand on the deck. It was reported that each man saw the skeleton of the man in front of him, following the tests, she returned to San Diego on 8 October. For the next few years, she tended ships primarily at San Diego, the repair ship got underway on 2 April 1951 for the first of many postwar cruises to Japan and arrived at Yokosuka on the 18th. She headed for Sasebo on 1 May and spent the rest of the year, Ajax returned to San Diego on 26 April and dev oted the next four and one-half months to operations in various shipyards and ports along the coast of California
18.
USS Hector (AR-7)
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The USS Hector was a repair ship that served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1987. Hector was launched 11 November 1942 by the Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, San Pedro, California, Hector was commissioned 7 February 1944, with Commander J. W. Long in command. After shakedown along the West Coast, the new ship sailed for the Pacific. She remained at Pearl Harbor effecting repairs on ships, primarily landing craft. Arriving there 13 June, Hector spent the summer at Eniwetok and her biggest repair job of the war came to her 27 October at Ulithi as the cruiser USS Houston, torpedoed twice by Japanese submarines, was towed alongside. Although hampered by a typhoon season which twice sent her out to sea for safety. Hector departed Ulithi 16 February 1945 and 5 days later steamed into Tarragona, Leyte Gulf and this task completed, she returned to Ulithi 30 March and continued on to Saipan 22 May. After the war ended 1 September, Hector remained in the Pacific to prepare ships for return to the United States. Departing Saipan 21 January 1946, Hector reached Long Beach, California 3 February, after serving as a repair ship there, she sailed for her first WestPac cruise 7 May 1947, thereby settling into a peacetime schedule interrupted 3 years later by the outbreak of Korean War. Hector sailed into Yokosuka 18 September 1950, from there she continued to Inchon, Korea, arriving at the scene of the Inchon Invasion,25 September. For the remainder of the Korean War Hector alternated repair service along the Korean coast, in 1954 she was presented with the Battle Efficiency Plaque for the year 1953–1954, and again in 1955 was awarded the same plaque for the year 1954–1955. Thereafter, as before the Korean War, Hector alternated 4 to 6 months of service and exercises along the California coast with 6- and 8-month WestPac cruises. During these cruises the repair ship, operating in support and service of the United States Pacific and Asian defenses, visited such ports as Yokosuka, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guam, and Eniwetok. Serving intermittently as flagship for both Service Squadrons 1 and 3, Hector also was a participant in the Navys People to People program in Asia. Her deployments to the Western Pacific continued into the 1960s, Hector operated in the Far East from Japan to the Philippines between June 1963 and January 1964. Thence, she resumed fleet services out of Long Beach until departing for the Far East 5 August and she arrived Subic Bay later that month, and during the next 6 months repaired and serviced ships in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan. She returned to the West Coast in March 1967 and into mid-1967 Hector continued to maintain a state of readiness. Hector departed for WESTPAC via Pearl Harbor on 3 January 1972 arriving in Sasebo 26 January where she served as the flagship for COMSERVGRU THREE
19.
USS Jason (AR-8)
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USS Jason was a repair ship of the United States Navy in service from 1944 to 1995, serving in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War. At the time of her decommissioning, Jason was the oldest ship in commission in the United States Navy. She was laid down on 9 March 1942, at Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, San Pedro, California, as Heavy-hull Repair Ship ARH-1, Jason was commissioned on 19 June 1944, with Capt. A. O. R. After brief shakedown and fitting out, the ship arrived Pearl Harbor on 6 July 1944 on the first leg of her journey to the Pacific battle area. She arrived Purvis Bay in the Solomon Islands on 17 August to commence operations with Service Squadron 10. Two months later she arrived Ulithi, where she was to spend the greater part of the war, performing the task of keeping the U. S. Navys ships at peak strength and operating efficiency. S. This floating shipyard turned seemingly hopeless battle wrecks into rejuvenated fighting ships again able to stand out gallantly in the final victorious months, as the action crept closer to Japan, Jason sailed for Leyte arriving there on 28 May 1945. She remained there for the duration of the war continuing to service ships of the Pacific Fleet. After the surrender of Japan, she joined a convoy of units from the U. S. 7th Fleet and arrived Jinsen, Korea, on 8 September with the first occupation troops. She operated out of Jinsen, and Tsingtao, China, until mid-February 1946, performing repair services, Jason returned to Terminal Island, California, on 9 March for overhaul. Her rest was a one, however, as she sailed once again in May for the Far East. For the next four years she serviced the U. S, Pacific Fleet, alternating between Japan and California. As the Communists grew bolder, and their regime in North Korea staged an act of aggression on South Korea. American forces were dispatched to the area, and naval power played an important role in the conflict. With an increased number of ships in the Far East, Jason departed Oakland, California, on 22 July 1950 for Sasebo, throughout the war she remained at Sasebo for extended periods performing the repair tasks at hand, with only brief overhaul periods in the United States. Following the cessation of hostilities in Korea, Jason returned to San Diego, California, six months later she sailed for another WestPac deployment which included a goodwill tour to Chin Hae, Korea. It was during this cruise, that the Chinese Communists began to harass the Nationalist-held Tachen Islands, the powerful U. S. 7th Fleet, which Jason helped maintain, sent units into the area to make certain the peace was not violated. Jason returned to San Diego, California, on 13 February 1955 and her next Far Eastern tour began January 1956, and she operated, in Japan, Okinawa, and Formosa before returning to San Diego, in late October
20.
USS Delta (AR-9)
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USS Delta was the lead ship of her class of repair ships in the United States Navy during World War II. She was originally built as the merchant ship SS Hawaiian Packer before her requisition by the U. S. Navy in 1941, before conversion to a repair ships, Delta briefly served as a U. S. Navy cargo ship. Delta was built in 1941 as the Hawaiian Packer by Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia, one of four Type C3 ships ordered by the Matson Navigation Company. Launched on 2 April, she was acquired by the Navy on 4 June 1941, on 1 July 1942, Delta was reclassified as AR-9, and was placed in reserve commission for conversion to a fleet repair ship by Cramp Shipyard, Philadelphia. Delta sailed from Philadelphia on 3 March 1943, and between March and June repaired amphibious ships and craft at Oran, Algeria. She served similarly at Bizerte, Tunisia, from June to March 1944, then at Palermo, Italy and her final Mediterranean duty, from November to April 1945, was to tend destroyers at Oran. She returned to Norfolk Naval Shipyard for overhaul on 27 April 1945, Delta served the Fleet at Shanghai from March through June 1946, and on 17 July arrived at Philadelphia, where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 5 March 1947. Her first such, during the Korean War, was from 25 June 1952 until 14 February 1953, on her second, in 1953 and 1954, she joined in Operation Passage to Freedom, the evacuation of Vietnamese to South Vietnam upon the partition of Indochina. During her last Far Eastern service, in 1955, she served as flagship for the Blockading and she returned from this cruise to Tacoma, Washington, where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve 1 December 1955. On 31 October 1959, Delta was recommissioned in a ceremony at Bremerton Naval Shipyard, as USS Kermit Roosevelt was decommissioned. She served for eleven years until being decommissioned on 20 June 1970 at Bremerton Naval Shipyard. Delta was stricken from the Naval Register on 1 October 1977, MARAD finally sold Delta on 19 July 1983, probably for scrapping. Delta served as a machine shop at Mare Island Naval Shipyard under MARAD in 1980 and was located there until detached from MARAD in 1983. Delta received two stars for World War II service, one battle star for Korean War service. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here. Photo gallery of USS Delta AK-29/AR-9 at NavSource Naval History
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USS Briareus (AR-12)
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After a brief pre-war commercial service and allocation to the Army for transport the ship was purchased by the United States Navy in February 1943 and converted to a repair ship. Matson intended the ship to join Hawaiian Shipper and Hawaiian Merchant in the U. S, on 8 October 1941 the Hawaiian Planter departed the U. S. On 3 December she departed Honolulu with intent to drop 1,020 drums at Rabaul,7,140 drums at Port Moresby,6,000 at Rockhampton and 8,160 at Darwin. The start of war in the Pacific forced a stop in Pago Pago while commanders decided where the cargo should go, the ship was diverted to Sydney with the cargo of fuel six days after the planes and cargoes of the Pensacola Convoy. Those cargoes, along with those of other ships diverted there, were vital in the build up of U. S. Army Forces in Australia. On 2 January 1942 Hawaiian Planter departed with cargo for Java in the effort to build forces there, until acquisition by the Navy the ship was allocated by the War Shipping Administration for Army shipping requirements. Hawaiian Planter was purchased by the Navy on 16 February 1943 and renamed Briareus and she was converted to naval service by the Bethlehem Steel Company at Brooklyn, New York and commissioned on 15 November 1943 with Commander John F. Warris in command. She conducted her shakedown cruise during the middle of December and then put into Norfolk, Virginia, Briareus remained in Norfolk until 3 January 1944 at which time she put to sea for the Panama Canal. The repair ship arrived in Cristóbal, Canal Zone, on 8 January and she continued her voyage west that same day. The ship entered Pearl Harbor on 23 January, there, she began repair work and, over the following month, made repairs on 18 ships. On 25 February, Briareus stood out of Pearl Harbor on her way to the southwestern Pacific and she made port at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides on 11 March. There, she relieved Dixie as senior repair ship, during the six months that Briareus spent at Espiritu Santo, she made a variety of repairs on a wide assortment of ships ranging in size from landing craft to the battleship California. Leaving Aristaeus in charge of the work at Espiritu Santo. The ship arrived at Manus in the Admiralty Islands on 26 September and reported for duty to the Commander, at Manus, the repair ship worked preparing damaged ships of all varieties for the upcoming invasion of the Philippines at Leyte. In addition, she made repairs on some more badly damaged ships that had to return to the more extensive repair facilities in the United States. Early in November while Briareus was still at Manus, the ammunition ship Mount Hood exploded in the harbor, Briareus, some seven miles distant at the time, suffered no damage, but three of her crewmen detailed to ammunition delivery, disappeared in the disaster. The repair ship spent much of the remainder of November repairing motor minesweepers damaged by fragments in the explosion and she resumed her normal duties in December 1944 and January 1945 but in February orders sent her to a new location. On 18 February, the ship out of Seeadler Harbor
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USS Alcor (AD-34)
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USS Alcor was a destroyer tender, the lone ship in her class, named for a star in the constellation Ursa Major. The vessel was commissioned as USS Alcor on 4 September 1941 with Commander Edward A. Mitchell in command, the ship got underway on 7 December to sail to Casco Bay, Maine. After completing shakedown training, she shaped a course for Norfolk, Virginia and, upon reaching port on 19 December, became the flagship of Commander, Train. Re-classified a repair ship and redesignated AR-10 on 22 December 1941 Alcor began a tour of duty at Norfolk that lasted for more than 30 months and her protracted sojourn at Norfolk came to an end on 4 July 1944 when the repair ship got underway for the New England coast. She reached Casco Bay on 14 July and became the flagship of Commander, Destroyers and she remained in Casco Bay for the next five months making repairs for various ships of the fleet. While carrying out this assignment, her designation was changed to AD-34 on 6 November 1944, in early January,1945 the destroyer tender left the east coast, bound for the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal and joined the Pacific Fleet on 16 January, Alcor continued on to Hawaii and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 3 February. She provided tender services there until 4 June, when she sailed for the Philippine Islands, while en route, the vessel was diverted to Eniwetok. After a four-day layover for a construction project, the tender resumed her original course. There, she reported to Service Squadron 10 for duty and began work for various ships. During Alcors service in the Philippines, Japan capitulated on 15 August 1945, Alcor left Philippine waters on 14 September and headed for Okinawa. She reached Buckner Bay on the 18th and resumed her tender duties and she sailed for Japan on 28 February 1946. Her first stop was at Sasebo, where she carried out repair work through late March, Alcor then moved her operations to Yokosuka. The tender finished her tour there on 8 May, then shaped a course for the United States, after a pause en route at Pearl Harbor, the ship reached San Diego on 3 June. She sailed back through the Panama Canal and reached Norfolk on 22 June, preparations were begun for her deactivation, and Alcor was decommissioned on 5 August 1946. The vessel was sold on 6 August 1946 and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 August 1946, she was later scrapped in 1950. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. AG-34 / AR-10 / AD-34 Alcor, list of auxiliaries of the United States Navy
23.
USS Rigel (AD-13)
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USS Rigel was an Altair class destroyer tender named for Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation Orion. Following an extensive fitting out period and shakedown, Rigel was homeported at San Diego, during the interwar period she remained in southern California. While in San Diego at the Navy Destroyer Base, 11th Naval District, william E. Lund was the supply officer for the 11th Naval District and was attached to the Regal. USS Regal had one unique feature—she was the naval vessel in the 1930s to maintain quarters for the captains wife. My parents and I had dinner aboard at the invitation of Mrs. Susie Frucht and we were served by Filipino mess boys in a small but elegant mess which had one wall outfitted as a goldfish aquarium. This situation with the captains wife living aboard continued until Mrs. Frucht decided to keep a bee hive on deck, when sailors complained of being stung, the captain and his lady bought a home in Point Loma and moved ashore. Redesignated a repair ship, AR-11, on 10 April 1941, she underwent overhaul at Bremerton, Washington then sailed to Hawaii for more extensive repairs, by mid-July, she was at Pearl Harbor and was still in the yard on 7 December 1941. She was without her authorized armament and superstructure and was damaged during the Japanese attack. Her crew, unable to fire, immediately turned their skills to rescue, conversion work on Rigel was completed on 7 April 1942. On 20 April, with four 3-inch guns mounted, she got underway for the South Pacific, steaming first to Fanning Island, she disembarked U. S. Army units and material and embarked personnel of New Zealands Pacific Island Force and civilian evacuees. On the 28th, she continued westward and on 16 May arrived at Auckland to add her equipment and personnel to the repair, in November, she was again called on to substitute as a transport. On the 8th, she embarked Army units and on the 9th, arriving at Nouméa on 14 November, she shifted to Espiritu Santo two days later and contributed her skills to the Guadalcanal campaign. In mid-January 1943, she shifted to Efate, and, on 24 April, Rigel arrived at Sydney on 1 May, moved on to Brisbane on the 15th and until 14 June helped take the pressure off repair facilities there. But the 7th Amphibious Forces first assault landing was imminent and Rigels assistance was needed in the forward area. On 21 June the repair ship arrived in Milne Bay, New Guinea, on the 30th, the force landed troops on Woodlark and Kiriwina and the encirclement of Rabaul from the south was initiated. For the next 6½ months Rigel remained at Milne Bay, repairing ships from LSTs, LCIs, and MTBs to tankers, cruisers, by December, Allied forces had moved up the coast to dispute control of Vitiaz and Dampier Straits. In December, landings were made on New Britain at Arawe and Cape Gloucester, Rigel, no longer Admiral Barbeys flagship, soon followed. From Buna she moved up the coast to Alexishafen, whence, in late August and she was at Sydney during the initial thrust into the Philippines, but in November returned to New Guinea and continued her work at Hollandia,22 November to 10 January 1945
24.
USS Amphion (AR-13)
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USS Amphion was the lead ship of her class of repair ship built for the United States Navy during World War II. The second U. S. Navy vessel to be named Amphion, she was not commissioned until January 1946 and she was decommissioned in September 1971 and transferred to the Imperial Iranian Navy as IIS Chahbahan. She was purchased outright by Iran in March 1977, after the 1979 Iranian Revolution she remained in service with the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy through at least 1985. Her fate beyond that date is not reported in secondary sources and these shops are limited in what they can do, boasts an early history of Amphion, only by the size of their equipment. Her modern engineering plant could generate electricity for not only herself. Her distilling plant could produce water for herself and for other vessels, during the summers of 1957 and 1958 Amphion deployed to the Mediterranean, servicing ships of the 6th Fleet and visiting ports in France, Greece, Crete, Sicily, and the Balearic Islands. Through the 1960s she operated along the Atlantic coast of the United States, in 1965, she supported naval contingency operations off the Dominican Republic, and, in 1968, she visited ports in Scotland and England. Amphion departed Norfolk for the last time under the stars and stripes on 18 August 1971, after visiting Recife, Brazil 29 to 31 August, and Mombasa, Kenya 18 to 22 September, the repair ship reached her destination, Bandar Abbas, Iran, on 28 September. Decommissioned on 2 October 1971, Amphion was turned over to the Imperial Iranian Navy on that day. Renamed IIS Chah Bahar to honor the Iranian port of Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman, purchased outright by Iran on 1 March 1977, Amphions name was stricken from the U. S. Naval Vessel Register on the same date. Chah Bahar remained in service with the Iranian Navy into 1985 and this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here
25.
USS Cadmus (AR-14)
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USS Cadmus was a Amphion-class repair ship of the United States Navy during World War II. Cadmus launched on 5 August 1945 by the Tampa Shipbuilding Company in Tampa, Florida, Cadmus was commissioned 23 April 1946, with Captain J. M. Connally in command. Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, Cadmus operated from her home port at Norfolk, Virginia, calls to east coast ports and cruises in the Caribbean were part of a schedule which called for service to the Fleet during major exercises. On 3 September 1957, the ship cleared Norfolk on her first Atlantic crossing. After taking part in NATO Operation Strikeback exercises with Task Force 88 out of Rothesay, Scotland, she visited ports in Scotland, France, through the first half of 1958, she sailed with TF63 in replenishment missions during fleet exercises in the Mediterranean. From her return to Norfolk on 7 May 1958 through 1960, Cadmus continued her program of east coast, Cadmus moved her homeport to Newport, Rhode Island in 1964. Cadmus was decommissioned on 14 September 1971 and was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 January 1974, Cadmus was sold under the National Security Assistance Program to the Republic of China on 22 April 1974. She served as ROCS Yu Tai and this article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here and this article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, which, as a U. S. government publication, is in the public domain. The entry can be found here
26.
USS Xanthus (AR-19)
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USS Xanthus was a Xanthus-class repair ship acquired by the United States Navy for the task of providing repairs to the fleet. She was named after Xanthus, a mythical beast of Greek legend, intended for the Royal Navy as HMS Hecla, she was laid down under Maritime Commission contract as Hecla on 6 June 1944 at Baltimore, Maryland, by the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Inc. She was launched on 31 July 1944, sponsored by Mrs. J. W. A, waller, and delivered to the Navy on a loan basis on 16 August 1944. On 6 December 1944, she was renamed Xanthus and designated AR-19 and she was commissioned on 9 May 1945 with Commander Stanley G. Nichols in command. Following training operations and a transit of the Panama Canal, Xanthus arrived at Pearl Harbor on 20 July to serve there as a repair ship. On 11 August, she sailed for Adak, Alaska, to join forces massing there for the assaults on the Kurils. The Japanese capitulation, however, obviated such operations, instead of an invasion there was now an occupation. As part of Task Group 40.2, Xanthus proceeded to Japan, the ship remained at Ominato through 21 November, serving as flagship for the commander of TG56.2, the repair and logistics group. Subsequently reporting for duty with Service Squadron 104, the ship operated out of Okinawa through late January 1946, on 10 February 1946, Xanthus sailed for Tsingtao, China, and helped to stabilize troubled conditions there in the wake of the Japanese withdrawal. As Communist and Nationalist Chinese jockeyed for position in the situation in their country. On 1 September 1962, the ship was struck from the Navy List, in 1974, she was sold for scrapping in Cleveland, Ohio. List of United States Navy ships World War II This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here. NavSource Online, Service Ship Photo Archive - AR-19 Xanthus
27.
USS Laertes (AR-20)
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USS Laertes was a Xanthus class repair ship in the service of the United States Navy from 1945 to 1972. Laertes was originally laid down as the Liberty ship SS Dutiful by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard on 7 August 1944 and she was launched on 14 September 1944, sponsored by Mrs. F. A. R. McNab, and acquired by the Navy on 28 September. She was converted into a ship by the Maryland Drydock Company of Baltimore, Maryland and commissioned as USS Laertes on 24 March 1945. Sailing to Norfolk on 31 March, Laertes underwent shakedown before departing on 6 May for the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 6 June, she proceeded on 19 June to Eniwetok, where for almost 4 months she repaired ships damaged during the final battles of the war. In October, she steamed to Okinawa, then sailed for the west coast on 8 November and she served as a preinactivation repair ship until 17 April 1946 when she steamed to San Diego for similar duty. Laertes decommissioned on 15 January 1947 and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Laertes recommissioned on 19 December 1951 at San Diego, Capt. She operated out of San Diego as a unit of Service Force, Pacific Fleet, until 7 June 1952, steaming via Pearl Harbor, she reached Sasebo, Japan on 10 July for operations with Service Squadron 3. She served in the Far East for more than 5 months, servicing ships of the United States Seventh Fleet at Sasebo and at Pusan, Korea, departing Sasebo on 3 January 1953, she sailed for San Diego, arriving on 27 January. Laertes deployed to Pearl Harbor from 10 March to 6 June, then steamed to Long Beach and she returned to San Diego on 1 December. Laertes decommissioned on 26 February 1954, and entered the San Diego Group, in August 1961 she joined the Maritime Administration Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay. She was sold to Zidell Explorations, Inc. on 7 July 1972 for scrapping, Laertes received two battle stars for service during the Korean War. World War II Korean War This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here. Photo gallery at Naval Historical Center Photo gallery at Navsource. org
28.
USS Dionysus (AR-21)
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USS Dionysus was a Xanthus-class repair ship in the service of the United States Navy from 1945 to 1955. Dionysus was originally launched as the Liberty ship SS Faithful by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard on 10 October 1944 and she was acquired by the Navy on 25 October 1944 and commissioned as USS Dionysus on 28 April 1945, Commander S. D. Simpson in command. Dionysus arrived at Pearl Harbor on 30 June 1945, on 13 July she was underway for Eniwetok where she was stationed as repair ship from 24 July to 8 September. Entering Tokyo Bay on 17 September, Dionysus served there until 10 November when she sailed for overhaul at Bremerton, Washington, on 30 May 1946 she arrived at San Pedro, where she was placed out of commission in reserve on 31 January 1947. Recommissioned on 13 February 1952, Dionysus sailed from Long Beach on 8 April to join the Atlantic Fleet and she arrived at Naval Station Norfolk on 29 April and served primarily at this base. She arrived at Newport, Rhode Island on 11 May and continued her services there until 3 February 1955. At New York from 4 February to 11 April, she sailed for Beaumont, Texas. She arrived at Orange, Texas on 25 April and was placed out of commission in reserve there as of 1 July 1955, Dionysus was withdrawn from the James River Reserve Fleet on 31 May 1978 and designated for use in an artificial reef program in North Carolina. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, the entry can be found here
29.
USS Klondike (AR-22)
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USS Klondike was one of four destroyer tenders built at the tail end of World War II for the United States Navy. The lead ship in her class, she was named for the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory, Canada, the Klondike class destroyer tenders were a Navy adaptation of the Maritime Commissions C3 fast cargo ship design. After shakedown, Klondike loaded hundreds of tons of spares and stores in preparation for the task of supplying and maintaining destroyers and she departed San Pedro on 19 October for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii arriving the 25th. Recalled to the West Coast, she sailed from Pearl on 7 November with 500 home-bound veterans embarked and arrived in San Diego on 15 November. On 21 November she became the flagship for Commander, San Diego Group, 19th Fleet, placed on an inactive status on 30 November 1946, Klondike was placed in service in late September 1948. She served as flagship of the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet until 11 May 1955, Klondike recommissioned 15 July 1959 at Long Beach, California with Commander Fred Ferguson Mullins, Jr. in command. Returning to San Diego on 4 December, she provided repair facilities as a unit of ServRon 1, on 20 February 1960 she was re-classified as repair ship USS Klondike and she repaired vessels at San Diego, Long Beach, and San Francisco until 15 July 1961. Klondike then departed San Diego for duty in the Far East, returning to the West Coast on 11 March, she resumed her duty out of San Diego. Departing San Diego on 17 July 1963, Klondike steamed via Pearl Harbor for the Western Pacific, while en route to Sasebo, she offered assistance 6 through 9 August 1963 to a distressed Greek freighter Cryssism during a raging typhoon. Reaching Sasebo on 11 August, she proceeded to Subic Bay 15 August for repair ship station duty, Klondike operated in the Far East until 30 November, then she returned to the United States, arriving San Diego on 14 December 1963. During the next year she continued servicing ships while operating out of San Diego, during the Vietnam War Klondike participated in the Tet Counteroffensive from 31 March 1969 to 24 April 1969. She repaired a river supply ship that collided with a destroyer and was struck in her aft section by enemy fire from river boats. For her service in Vietnam, the Klondike was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal with one Bronze Star for the Tet Counteroffensive, Klondike was struck from the Naval Register on 15 September 1974, after which time custody was transferred to the Maritime Administration for disposal. Klondike was sold by MARAD on 8 May 1975, fate unknown, list of auxiliaries of the United States Navy This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, USS Klondike USS Klondike The National Association of Destroyer Veterans
30.
USS Markab
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USS Markab was a Hamul-class destroyer tender named for Markab, the third-brightest star in the constellation Pegasus. Markab operated with Atlantic amphibious forces in the Hampton Roads area until 1 October 1941 and she then loaded cargo at Jersey City, New Jersey for delivery to American troops recently stationed in Greenland. Returning to Brooklyn, New York on 21 November, she took on supplies for distribution to various bases in the Caribbean. World War II engulfed the United States before Markab steamed into Ensenada Honda, Puerto Rico, the new wartime demands on the Navy caused this voyage to terminate at Mobile, Alabama on 8 January 1942 where she was converted to a destroyer tender. Sixteen days later she was redesignated AD-21, but it was 27 September before Commander Brown again commanded a fully commissioned vessel, after shakedown Markab transited the Panama Canal on 27 October to join Destroyer Force, Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Ships recently returned from the battle for the Solomon Islands made use of her facilities for three months prior to her departure on 6 February 1943 to service the North Pacific Force. In the year she remained in the Aleutians, she rendered noteworthy service in helping to prepare vessels for both the Attu and Kiska invasions, steaming to San Francisco late in January,1944 the ship prepared for an even more extensive Pacific tour. She departed the West Coast on 26 February and worked her way toward the war zone, having assisted in preparing and sustaining the ships fighting in the bloody conquests of the Marianas and Iwo Jima, she sailed for the Philippines on 16 February 1945. Her work force now overhauled and readied landing craft for the assault on Okinawa, during June she played an important part in preparing TF38 for the last great raids on Japan. Following the Japanese surrender, Markab refitted and restocked ships bound for the areas of Japan, Korea. Steaming in their wake, she arrived Sasebo, Japan on 1 November and early in January 1946 joined the 7th Fleet at Shanghai and her services in the western Pacific ended 2 April as Markab commenced the long voyage home for inactivation. The ship off loaded at New Orleans beginning 6 May, at Orange, Texas on January,1947 she decommissioned and entered the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. When the Cold War turned hot in Korea, the resultant expansion of the Navy brought the temporary reactivation of Markab, recommissioned on 26 February 1952 with Captain Melvyn H. McCoy in command, she remained on the East Coast servicing Destroyer Force ships. Operating initially at Newport, Rhode Island and after April,1955 at Fall River, Massachusetts, on 9 February she departed on a voyage to Charleston where she decommissioned on 31 July. Into a crisis-beset world she emerged again in 1960, towed to Mare Island Navy Yard in California, she was redesignated as Repair Ship AR-23 on 15 April and recommissioned on 1 July with Captain Edwin Monroe Westbrook, Jr. in command. Homeported at Alameda Naval Air Station, the ship sailed to Pearl Harbor late in October. Between 5 July 1962 and 14 September 1966 she projected her services even more widely, on the first such voyage Markab returned a priceless Chinese art treasures exhibit to Taiwan. On the next two tours, ships returning from combat patrol off the coast of Vietnam increasingly required her facilities, interspersed with the work periods in the Philippines and Japan were brief rest and rehabilitation periods at Hong Kong and Buckner Bay, Okinawa
31.
USS Grand Canyon (AD-28)
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USS Grand Canyon was a Shenandoah-class destroyer tender built at the tail end of World War II, and named for the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. After brief shakedown off the coast of Southern California, Grand Canyon departed Port Townsend, Washington on 26 June 1946 en route to Newport and she arrived in Newport on 20 July. Assigned the task of keeping United States Navy destroyers in operation, after a visit to Palermo, Sicily, and a 4½-month stay at Naples she returned to the States, arriving back in Norfolk on 1 March 1947. Between 1 November 1947 and 12 November 1954 Grand Canyon continued her support of 6th Fleet destroyers, during this time she participated in some of the largest peacetime service operations ever undertaken. Grand Canyon continued her duties in the U. S. until 24 September 1956 when she again departed for the Mediterranean for her eighth tour. By 20 October the Suez Crisis had reached the serious stage, during this period the Grand Canyon, as flagship, took part in fleet exercises and visited the ports of Augusta, Messina and Taranto. As the Suez problem subsided she sailed for Cannes, France on 20 December in time for the Christmas holidays, Grand Canyon returned to Fall River, Massachusetts on 13 March 1957. The third of September 1957 found Grand Canyon underway with units of the Atlantic Fleet. By the 16th she had crossed the Arctic Circle operating west of Norway, after visits to Trosmo, Norway and the Isle of Portland, England Grand Canyon once again returned to Newport, arriving on 21 October. Grand Canyon continued her duties out of Fall River until 1 August 1958 when she sailed for Souda Bay on the Island of Crete to support the 6th Fleet in operations off Lebanon. For the next four months she supported destroyers and other types while helping to stabilize the situation, besides Souda Bay, Grand Canyon visited Izmir, Turkey, Athens, Greece, Naples, Italy and Barcelona, Spain before returning home in December. Grand Canyon spent most of 1959 with tender duties at Newport except for duty at Charleston and she cleared Charleston on 11 January 1960 to participate in Operation Springboard, returning to Newport on 7 February, thence to Bermuda and New York before returning to Newport. Between October,1960 and August,1961 Grand Canyon tended ships at Newport, Boston, after her ninth Mediterranean tour August 1961 to March 1962 Grand Canyon returned to Newport and again took up her duties there until the fall. She proceeded to San Juan, Puerto Rico, arriving 3 November 1962 to start tending ships of the South Atlantic Blockading Fleet during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Grand Canyon again helped demonstrate the mobility and versatility of sea power. She returned to Newport on 5 December, Grand Canyon made her tenth deployment to the Mediterranean between 6 February and 27 June 1963. The ship entered Bethlehem Steel Yards in East Boston for modernization, with the completion of modernization on 3 January 1964, Grand Canyon sailed for Guantanamo Bay and San Juan on training cruises. Returning to Mayport, Florida on 11 May, she tended destroyers there until her departure for Newport on 20 June for similar duties at that station, on 27 November Grand Canyon departed Newport for her 11th Mediterranean cruise, relieving the USS Shenandoah as 6th Fleet tender. She reached Palma de Mallorca in December and until 16 April 1965 tended ships in French, Italian, after returning to Newport on 27 April she served there and at Norfolk during the next 11 months
32.
HMS Resource (F79)
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HMS Resource was a fleet repair ship of the Royal Navy. She was built by Vickers-Armstrongs and launched in 1928, the ship served in two theatres during the Second World War. Resource was fitted with four three-drum Admiralty boilers, giving her a top speed of 15 knots and she was armed with four 4 guns. Her complement varied throughout her career, from a complement of 581. She served in the Mediterranean from 1939 until 1944, except in early 1940 when she spent an amount of time at Freetown. She served in the Eastern Fleet from 1944, and was scrapped at Inverkeithing in February 1954
33.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
34.
HMS Adventure (M23)
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HMS Adventure, pennant number M23, was a minelaying cruiser of the Royal Navy built in the 1920s that saw service during the Second World War. Her commander between 1928 and 1929 was the future First Sea Lord John H. D. Cunningham, on entering the service she joined the Atlantic Fleet. From 1931-1932, she underwent a refit, during this refit she received a rounded stern in place of the original square one. In the early months of the Second World War, she was damaged in the Thames Estuary and was repaired at Sheerness, in 1940, she laid minefields in the Orkney Islands and St. Georges Channel and in 1941 was damaged by a mine while off Liverpool. In 1944, she was converted to a landing craft repair and accommodation ship, in 1945 was reduced to reserve, Adventure was adopted by the City of Plymouth. Adventure was built to replace the converted First World War veteran Princess Margaret, and her design was dictated by a requirement for a large mine capacity and a good cruising range. The mineload was to be carried internally, dictating a long, tall hull. As a result, she was rebuilt with a cruiser, or rounded, stern. The diesel-electric plant was removed by 1941, along with the diesel exhaust that had been trunked up the second funnel. Adventures high topweight resulting from the mineload carried high up in her hull meant that typical cruiser type armament could not be fitted. Instead, four QF4.7 in guns on high-angle mounts were carried in A, Q, X and Y positions, the anti-aircraft armament was completed by a single octuple multiple pom-pom in B position and a pair of quadruple.5 in Vickers machine guns. By 1944, nine 20 mm Oerlikon guns had been added, Adventure was converted to a repair ship for landing craft for the Normandy landings. Adventure was badly damaged, most probably by a German magnetic mine in the Thames estuary at 05,26 on the morning of 13 November 1939, twenty-three men were killed in this incident. She was sailing in company with Blanche and Basilisk, Blanche was also mined at 08,20 and sank at 09,50. One man was killed on Blanche, during the Normandy landings in 1944 Adventure was deployed off Mulberry B as a support and repair vessel, she landed repair parties on 19 June for extensive salvage work on damaged landing craft. Mine Warfare Vessels of the Royal Navy,1908 to Date, british & Commonwealth Warships of the Second World War. Site about the mining of HMS Adventure
35.
HMAS Albatross (1928)
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HMAS Albatross was a seaplane tender of the Royal Australian Navy, which was later transferred to the Royal Navy and used as a repair ship. Albatross was built by Cockatoo Island Dockyard during the mid-1920s and entered service at the start of 1929, after five years in reserve, Albatross was transferred to the Royal Navy to offset the Australian purchase of the light cruiser Hobart. Although the British had little use for a carrier, the ship found a niche after two aircraft carriers were sunk by the Germans early in World War II. Albatross was initially based in Freetown, Sierra Leone for patrol and convoy duties in the southern Atlantic. Albatross was torpedoed in October, but survived to be towed back to England, after repairs completed at the start of 1945, she served as a minesweeper depot ship, but was decommissioned after the wars end. Albatross was sold into service in August 1946, and after several changes of hands was renamed Hellenic Prince in 1948. The vessel was chartered by the International Refugee Organisation to transport refugees from Europe to Australia, Hellenic Prince saw service as a troopship during the 1953 Mau Mau Uprising, but was broken up for scrap a year later. In 1925, Governor-General Lord Stonehaven announced the construction of a seaplane carrier, the ship displaced 4,800 tons at standard load. The propulsion machinery consisted of four Yarrow boilers supplying Parsons geared turbines and these generated 12,000 shaft horsepower, which was fed to two propeller shafts. Although Albatross was designed with a speed of 20 knots. At that speed, she had a range of 4,280 nautical miles, the ships company consisted of 29 RAN officers,375 RAN sailors,8 RAAF officers, and 38 RAAF enlisted. Development of the ship from the Admiralty sketch design was based around the Fairey IIID seaplane being operated for the RAN by the Royal Australian Air Forces No.101 Flight, three recovery cranes were used to manipulate the aircraft. The Faireys were removed from service shortly before Albatross entered service, the Mark IIIs were unsuited for operations aboard Albatross, particularly as the aircraft were not durable enough to withstand catapult launches. Albatross was removed from seagoing service in 1933, two months before the Mark Vs entered service, although the aircraft were operated from the vessel while she was at anchor. Albatross was laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Company at Cockatoo Island and she was launched by the wife of the Governor-General of Australia, Baron Stonehaven of Ury on 23 February 1928. Albatross was completed on 21 December 1928, and commissioned into the RAN on 23 January 1929 and she cost 1,200,000 pounds to construct. HMAS Albatross began her first cruise a week after commissioning, visiting Tasmania and Victoria. On 11 April 1929, the ship was sent from Sydney to off Wyndham, Western Australia to search for Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and the Southern Cross, before the ship could reach the area, Smith was found, having made an emergency landing near the Glenelg River
36.
HMS Artifex (F28)
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HMS Artifex was a repair ship of the Royal Navy from late in the Second World War and into the Cold War. Launched as the Cunard liner RMS Aurania she was requisitioned on the outbreak of war to serve as a merchant cruiser. Damaged by a U-boat while sailing with an Atlantic convoy, she was purchased outright and converted to a floating workshop, spending the rest of her life as a support ship for the navy. As one of the post-Great War A-class ocean liners, RMS Aurania was built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. at their Wallsend-on-Tyne yard for Cunard and her sisters included RMS Alaunia and RMS Ausonia. With the merger of Cunard and the White Star Line in 1933, she continued to serve with the resulting company, Cunard White Star Ltd. With war looming, she was requisitioned by the Admiralty on 30 August 1939 and converted to serve as a merchant cruiser. The conversion was completed on 2 October 1939, on completion of the work she entered service protecting trade sailing through the North Atlantic, covering the convoys. She was initially assigned to the Northern Patrol, followed by the Bermuda and Halifax Escort Force, on 21 October 1941 she was sailing as an escort for convoy SL89, bound from Halifax to the Clyde. She was straggling behind the convoy with a group of four armed merchant cruisers and was sighted by U-123. At 04.28 hours he fired three torpedoes at her, two of them hitting the Aurania in the bow and under the bridge, the ship began to flood at the Number 3 hold, causing a list to port that eventually reached 25 degrees. The Auranias cargo of empty drums acted to keep her afloat, meanwhile, other convoy escorts had chased U-123 away from the scene. During the confusion a lifeboat had been launched containing six men, one of the escorts, the Hunt class destroyer HMS Croome, picked up three of the men, but was unable to locate the others. Some hours later U-123 came across the lifeboat, with a single survivor. Meanwhile, Aurania was escorted back to Rothesay Bay by the sloop HMS Totland, the Germans claimed that she had been sunk. She was laid up, spending the period between November 1941 and March 1942 with Plymouth Command and she was bought outright by the Admiralty on 24 March 1942 and selected for conversion to a Heavy Repair Ship. Work began that December and lasted until July 1944 and she was commissioned in August as HMS Artifex and after carrying out trials was prepared for service in the Pacific theatre. She sailed to join the British Pacific Fleet in early 1945, Artifex took passage to Leyte on 19 April to support ships involved in the attacks against the airfields in the Sakishima-Gunto Islands. She remained here throughout April and much of May, sailing for Manus again on 20 May and she remained here for the rest of the war
37.
HMS Port Quebec
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SS Port Quebec was under construction for the Port Line when she was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport for completion as the auxiliary minelayer HMS Port Quebec. She joined the Royal Navy 1st Minelaying Squadron based at Kyle of Lochalsh laying mines for the World War II Northern Barrage, after minelaying was completed in October 1943, she was retained for conversion to a repair ship and renamed HMS Deer Sound in 1944. She was then returned to the Port Line in 1947, british and Dominion Warships of World War II. Garden City, New York, Doubleday and Company, chronology of the War at Sea 1939-1945, The Naval History of World War Two
38.
Italian cruiser San Giorgio
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The Italian cruiser San Giorgio was the name ship of her class of two armored cruisers built for the Royal Italian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Commissioned in 1910, the ship was damaged when she ran aground before the start of the Italo-Turkish War in 1911. During World War I, San Giorgios activities were limited by the threat of Austro-Hungarian submarines, although the ship did participate in the bombardment of Durazzo, Albania, in late 1918. She acted as a yacht for Crown Prince Umbertos 1924 tour of South America. San Giorgio served as a ship from 1930 to 1935 and was then rebuilt in 1937–38 to better serve in that role. San Giorgio was forced to scuttle herself in early 1941 as the Allies moved in to occupy the port and her wreck was used as an immobile repair ship by the British from 1943 through 1945. Salvaged in 1952, she sank while under tow to Italy to be broken up, the ships of the San Giorgio class were designed as improved versions of the Pisa-class design. San Giorgio had a length between perpendiculars of 131.04 metres and a length of 140.89 metres. She had a beam of 21.03 metres and a draught of 7.35 metres, the ship displaced 10,167 tonnes at normal load, and 11,300 tonnes at deep load. Her complement was 32 officers and 666 to 673 enlisted men, the ship was powered by a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam supplied by 14 mixed-firing Blechynden boilers. Designed for an output of 23,000 shaft horsepower. The ship had a range of 6,270 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The main armament of the San Giorgio-class ships consisted of four Cannone da 254/45 A Modello 1908 guns in turrets fore. The ships mounted eight Cannone da 190/45 A Modello 1908 in four twin-gun turrets, for defense against torpedo boats, they carried 18 quick-firing 40-caliber 76 mm guns. Eight of these were mounted in embrasures in the sides of the hull, the ships were also fitted with a pair of 40-caliber QF47 mm guns. The San Giorgios were also equipped with three submerged 450 mm torpedo tubes, during World War I, eight of the 76 mm guns were replaced by six 76 mm anti-aircraft guns and one torpedo tube was removed. The ships were protected by a belt that was 200 mm thick amidships and reduced to 80 mm at the bow. The armoured deck was 50 mm thick and the conning tower armour was 254 mm thick, the 254 mm gun turrets were protected by 200 mm of armour while the 190 mm turrets had 160 mm
39.
HMS Vindictive (1918)
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HMS Vindictive was a warship built during the First World War for the Royal Navy. Originally designed as a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser and laid down under the name Cavendish, renamed in 1918, she was completed a few weeks before the end of the war and saw no active service with the Grand Fleet. The following year she participated in the British campaign in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks during which her aircraft made attacks against the naval base at Kronstadt. Vindictive returned home at the end of the year and was placed in reserve for years before her flight decks were removed. The ship retained her hangar and conducted trials with a aircraft catapult before she was sent to the China Station in 1926. A year after her return in 1928, she was placed in reserve. Vindictive was demilitarized and converted into a ship in 1936–1937. At the beginning of the Second World War she was converted into a repair ship and her first role after the conversion was completed in early 1940, however, was to transport troops during the Norwegian Campaign. She was then sent to the South Atlantic to support British ships serving there and, in late 1942, Vindictive returned home in 1944 and was damaged by a German torpedo off the coast of Normandy after the Allies invaded France. She was reduced to reserve after the war and sold for scrap in 1946, the Hawkins-class cruiser was designed to hunt enemy commerce raiders overseas. This required a ship to provide the necessary endurance for sustained operations away from supporting bases. The design was given high freeboard to allow it to maintain its speed in heavy weather. Sir Eustace Tennyson dEyncourt, the Director of Naval Construction, included both coal and oil-fired boilers to provide the ship with no matter the supply conditions. By this time the threat from German cruisers and raiders had ended, the cruisers had an overall length of 605 feet, a beam of 65 feet, and a mean draught of 19 feet 3 inches at deep load. They were designed to displace 9,750 long tons and had a complement of 37 officers and 672 enlisted men, the ships had four Parsons geared steam turbines, each of which drove one propeller shaft. The turbines were designed to produce a total of 60,000 shaft horsepower for a speed of 30 knots, steam for the turbines was provided by 12 Yarrow boilers,8 of these were oil-fired while the remaining 4 used coal. They had a capacity of 800 long tons of coal and 1,600 long tons of fuel oil. The main armament of the Hawkins-class cruisers consisted of seven 45-calibre 7.5 in Mk VI guns in pivot mounts, at maximum elevation these guns fired a 200-pound shell to a range of 21,114 yards
40.
Xanthus-class repair ship
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The Xanthus-class repair ships were a class of five auxiliary ships built for the United States Navy and Royal Navy. Ships of the served in a diverse range of environments in varying capacities during both World War II and the Korean War. Xanthus-class ships were in commission between 1945–1955, on 26 February 1944, the United States CNO FADM Ernest J. King authorized the construction of five vessels in response to a British Royal Navy request for several Heavy Duty Fleet Repair Ships. These ships were to have been constructed in the United States, Xanthus-class vessels were first laid down in mid-1944 by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard under a Maritime Commission contract. These ships were intended as Liberty ships, hull design EC2-S-C1. Instead, five of the partially completed Liberty ship hulls were requisitioned for conversion into repair ships and it was soon realized that the Liberty ship hull and configuration would not be suitable for the role of repair ship. Substantial modification was necessary in order to ensure operating efficiency and functionality, construction proceeded, with initial hull alterations and armament based off the Luzon class. The Luzon-class repair ship USS Tutuila was selected as the conversion template, a complete overhaul of the internal configuration, and thus completely new plans for the internal configuration, were necessary. Each remained in Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard for most of the construction process, at approximately 80% completion, the ships were transferred to the conversion docks. Four of the five ships remained in Maryland and were converted by the Maryland Drydock Company, the other ship, AR-19, was sent to Bethlehem-Simpson Yard in Boston, Massachusetts. While all five ships were intended for the Royal Navy, only two were delivered, the other three were expropriated by the US Navy sometime prior to completion and were given the Xanthus class designation. Xanthus-class vessels provided a range of auxiliary repair functions for both the US and British navies. American-flagged ships served in the Pacific with the US Navy, repairing ships damaged in the battles against Japan. These ships continued their role after the war by providing support for the Allied occupation of Japan, British flagged ships served in the Atlantic with the Royal Navy repairing both aircraft and destroyers before being returned to the United States shortly following the wars end. One ship, USS Laertes, also served in the Korean War, HMS Assistance was laid down in May 1944 and delivered to the Royal Navy on 20 January 1945. The ship served in British home waters as an aircraft depot and she was returned to US Navy and transferred to the National Defense Reserve Fleet in 1946. HMS Diligence was laid down in June 1944 and transferred to Britain in 1945 and she served as a destroyer repair vessel until returning to US Navy in 1946. She was subsequently transferred to National Defense Reserve Fleet, USS Xanthus was laid down in June 1944, launched in July and finally commissioned in May 1945
41.
Japanese battleship Asahi
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Asahi was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the capacity to build such warships itself. Shortly after her arrival in Japan, she became flagship of the Standing Fleet and she participated in every major naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and was lightly damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea and the Battle of Tsushima. Asahi saw no combat during World War I, although the ship participated in the Siberian Intervention in 1918. Reclassified as a coastal ship in 1921, Asahi was disarmed two years later to meet the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, after which she served as a training. She was modified into a salvage and rescue ship before being placed in reserve in 1928. Asahi was recommissioned in late 1937, after the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1938, she was converted into a repair ship and based first at Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China, and then Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, from late 1938 to 1941. The ship was transferred to occupied Singapore in early 1942 to repair a light cruiser. She was sunk en route by the American submarine USS Salmon and these ships were paid for from the £30,000,000 indemnity paid by China after losing the First Sino-Japanese War. Asahi, the fifth Japanese battleship to be built in Britain, was ordered from the Clydebank Engineering & Shipbuilding Company shipyard in Clydebank, Asahis design was a modified version of the Formidable-class battleships of the Royal Navy, with two additional 6-inch guns. The ship had a length of 425 feet 3 inches, a beam of 75 feet. She displaced 15,200 long tons at normal load, Asahi had a complete double bottom with 55 watertight compartments. Her hull was subdivided into 223 watertight compartments. She was fitted as a flagship and her crew numbered about 773 officers and enlisted men and she carried a maximum of 2,000 long tons of coal which allowed her to steam for 9,000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The ship was fitted with three steam-driven 4. 8-kilowatt dynamos, Asahis main battery consisted of the same four Elswick Ordnance Company 40-calibre twelve-inch guns used in all of Japans preceding battleships. They were mounted in turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. The hydraulically powered mountings allowed the guns to be loaded at all angles of traverse, each mount could traverse a total of 240 degrees. They fired 850-pound projectiles at a velocity of 2,400 ft/s
42.
Japanese repair ship Akashi
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Akashi was a Japanese repair ship, serving during World War II. She was the only specifically designed repair ship operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy, the navy based her design on the US Navys USS Medusa. In 1937 the Imperial Japanese Navy had converted the old battleship Asahi to serve as a repair ship, after the conversion of Asahi, a decision was made to build a dedicated repair ship with better capabilities for that task. The Imperial Japanese Navy planned for her to carry out 40% of the repairs needed by the Combined Fleet, therefore, she was equipped with the latest machine tools imported from Germany. In February 1944 the Americans made a raid on Truk, sinking and damaging many ships, Akashi was damaged in these attacks and escaped to the Japanese atoll of Palau. On 30 March 1944, while anchored off Urukthapel in the Palau Islands, Akashi was hit numerous times by bombs and rockets from American aircraft from Task Group 58 and she was sunk in shallow water with her bridge still remaining above the water
43.
Naval ship
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A naval ship is a military ship used by a navy. Naval ships are differentiated from civilian ships by construction and purpose, generally, naval ships are damage resilient and armed with weapon systems, though armament on troop transports is light or non-existent. Naval ships designed primarily for naval warfare are termed warships, as opposed to support or shipyard operations, submarine – self-propelled submersible types regardless of whether they are employed as combatant, auxiliary, or research and development vehicles which have at least a residual combat capability. Amphibious warfare – ships having organic capability for amphibious assault and which have characteristics enabling long duration operations on the high seas, combat logistics – ships that have the capability to provide underway replenishment to fleet units. Mine warfare – ships whose primary function is mine warfare on the high seas, coastal defense – ships whose primary function is coastal patrol and interdiction. Sealift – ships that have the capability to provide material support to other deployed units operating far from home base. Support – ships, such as oilers, designed to operate in the ocean in a variety of sea states to provide general support to either combatant forces or shore based establishments. Service type craft – navy-subordinated craft designed to provide support to either combatant forces or shore-based establishments. In rough order of tonnage, modern naval ships are commonly divided into the following different classes. There is also much blurring / gray areas between the classes, depending on their use, history, and interpretation of the class by different navies. Official Website of the United States Navy, heres the Entire U. S. Navy Fleet in One Chart. Official Website of the United States Navy, *United States Naval Recognition Training Slides-Grand Valley State University Archives and Special Collections
44.
Modern history
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Modern history, the modern period or the modern era, is the global historiographical approach to the timeframe after the Post-classical history. It took all of history up to 1804 for the worlds population to reach 1 billion. Contemporary history is the span of historic events from approximately 1945 that are relevant to the present time. Some events, while not without precedent, show a new way of perceiving the world, the concept of modernity interprets the general meaning of these events and seeks explanations for major developments. The fundamental difficulty of studying modern history is the fact that a plethora of it has been documented up to the present day and it is imperative to consider the reliability of the information obtained from these records. In the pre-modern era, many peoples sense of self and purpose was expressed via a faith in some form of deity. Pre-modern cultures have not been thought of creating a sense of distinct individuality, religious officials, who often held positions of power, were the spiritual intermediaries to the common person. It was only through intermediaries that the general masses had access to the divine. Tradition was sacred to ancient cultures and was unchanging and the order of ceremony. The term modern was coined in the 16th century to present or recent times. New information about the world was discovered via empirical observation, versus the use of reason. The term Early Modern was introduced in the English language in the 1930s, to distinguish the time between what we call Middle Ages and time of the late Enlightenment. It is important to note that these terms stem from European history, in the Contemporary era, there were various socio-technological trends. Regarding the 21st century and the modern world, the Information Age and computers were forefront in use, not completely ubiquitous. The development of Eastern powers was of note, with China, in the Eurasian theater, the European Union and Russian Federation were two forces recently developed. A concern for Western world, if not the world, was the late modern form of terrorism. The modern period has been a period of significant development in the fields of science, politics, warfare and it has also been an age of discovery and globalization. During this time, the European powers and later their colonies, began a political, economic, the modern era is closely associated with the development of individualism, capitalism, urbanization and a belief in the possibilities of technological and political progress
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