Service with Maritime Administration
From 7 February to 27 March 1952, Marine Fiddler was activated and operated by American President Lines for the Maritime Administration before returning to the Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay. On 8 October 1952, she was again reactivated by MARAD and was operated by American President Lines. Marine Fiddler was acquired by the Navy 10 December 1952 and was designated T‑AK‑267. The ship, under control of MSTS Pacific, provided support for American and U.N. forces in Korea combating Communist aggression. Converted to a heavy lift cargo ship 29 March 1954, she saw worldwide service, carrying oversized and bulky equipment in her special holds.
Vietnam War era
In 1960, she carried the components for the portable nuclear power plant, which was installed at Thule AFB, Greenland. On 4 December 1962, the ship rescued the crew of the storm‑damaged sloop Seascape, which was drifting 355 miles east of Cape Hatteras. The AK carried the French bathyscaphe Archimedes from Toulon, France, to San Juan, P.R., in April 1964. The heavy bathyscaphe was being used in oceanographic research operations in the Puerto Rican Trench. When U.S. forces left France in early 1967, Marine Fiddler, with other MSTS ships, transported heavy equipment to other bases in Europe. The heavy lift cargo ship continued to supply American oversea bases in the Atlantic and Mediterranean areas, with occasional special cargo runs to Southeast Asia into 1969. Marine Fiddler was under the operational control of MSTS Atlantic.
Ships Disposal
The ship would continue to serve the Asia-Pacific region for 3 more years before finally being brought out of service on 14 July 1973 for layup in the James River National Defense Reserve Fleet in Lee Hall, Virginia. On 31 March 1986, she was struck from the Naval Register and her title was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 26 October 1989. The ship remained there for an additional 14 years before being towed to Bay Bridge Enterprises on 30 October 2003. By 13 November 2004, she was listed as scrapped.
USNS Watertown (T-AGM-6) was a Watertown-class missile range instrumentation ship acquired by the United States Navy in 1960 and converted from her SS Niantic Victory Victory ship cargo configuration to a missile tracking ship, a role she retained for eleven years before being placed out of service in 1971.
SS Mission Purisima was a Type T2-SE-A2 tanker built for the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. After the war, she was acquired by the United States Navy as USS Mission Purisima (AO-118). Later the tanker transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS Mission Purisima (T-AO-118). She was a member of the Mission Buenaventura-class oiler and was named for Mission La Purísima Concepción near Lompoc, California.
SS Mission San Diego was a Type T2-SE-A2 tanker built for the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. After the war she was acquired by the United States Navy as USS Mission San Diego (AO-121). Later the tanker transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS Mission San Diego (T-AO-121). She was a member of the Mission Buenaventura-class oiler and was named for the Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
SS Mission San Jose was a Type T2-SE-A2 tanker built for the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. After the war she was acquired by the United States Navy as USS Mission San Jose. Later the tanker transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS Mission San Jose. She was a Mission Buenaventura-class oiler and was named for Mission San José, located in Fremont, California.
SS Mission Santa Barbara was a Type T2-SE-A2 tanker built for the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. After the war she was acquired by the United States Navy as USS Mission Santa Barbara (AO-131). Later the tanker transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS Mission Santa Barbara (T-AO-131). She was a Mission Buenaventura-class oiler and was named for Mission Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California.
SS Mission Santa Clara was a Type T2-SE-A2 tanker built for the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. After the war she was acquired by the United States Navy as USS Mission Santa Clara (AO-132). Later the tanker transferred to the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS Mission Santa Clara (T-AO-132). She was a Mission Buenaventura-class oiler and was named for Mission Santa Clara de Asís in Santa Clara, California.
USNS Comet (T-AK-269), later T-LSV-7, later T-AKR-7, later SS Comet, is a vehicle landing ship built for the United States Navy. The lone ship of her class, she is named for the comet, and is the fourth U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
USS Wabash (AOG-4) was a Patapsco-class gasoline tanker acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of transporting gasoline to warships in the fleet, and to remote Navy stations.
USS Wacissa (AOG-59) was a Patapsco-class gasoline tanker delivered to the United States Navy in 1946. She directly put in reserve and reactivated for service with the Military Sea Transportation Service between 1952 and 1956. In 1957, she was transferred to the United States Air Force. Shortly thereafter she was again transferred to Canada. She was finally scrapped in 1964.
The SS Arcadia Victory was a Victory ship built during World War II for cargo shipping. She was launched by the California Shipbuilding Company on 1 July 1944 and completed on 22 September 1944. The ship's United States Maritime Commission designation was VC2- S- AP3, hull number 41.
USNS Perseus (T-AF-64) was a Denebola-class stores ship acquired by the U.S. Navy. Her task was to carry stores, refrigerated items, and equipment to ships in the fleet, and to remote stations and staging areas.
USS Ontonagon (AOG-36) was a Mettawee-class gasoline tanker acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of transporting gasoline to warships in the fleet, and to remote Navy stations.
USS Maquoketa (AOG-51) was a Patapsco-class gasoline tanker in service with the United States Navy from 1945 to 1947 and with the Military Sea Transportation Service from 1952 to 1957. She was sold for scrap in 1975.
USNS Aiken Victory (T-AP-188) was a Victory ship-based troop transport that served with the United States Army Transport Service during both World War II and the Korean War. She was one of a class of 84 dedicated troop transports.
USNS Private Joe E. Mann (T-AK-253) was a Boulder Victory-class cargo ship acquired in 1950, from the U.S. Army, where she was known as the USAT Private Joe E. Mann.
USS Pembina (AK-200) – later known as USNS Pembina (T-AK-200) -- was an Alamosa-class cargo ship that was constructed for the U.S. Navy during the closing period of World War II. She supported the end-of-war Navy effort and was subsequently placed in service with the US Army under the Shipping Control Authority for the Japanese Merchant Marine with a Japanese crew in Yokosuka, Japan.
USNS Private Frank J. Petrarca (T-AK-250) was a US Maritime Administration (MARCOM) C1-M-AV1 type coastal cargo ship, originally planned as an Alamosa-class cargo ship. Constructed as Long Splice for MARCOM, completed in September 1945 and placed in operation by the War Shipping Administration (WSA) during the closing period of World War II. However, the war ended, and she was transferred to the US Army as USAT Private Frank J. Petrarca who kept her in service until transferred to the US Navy in 1950.
USNS Lt. George W. G. Boyce (T-AK-251) was a Boulder Victory-class cargo ship built for the U.S. Maritime Commission during the final months of World War II.
USNS Sgt. Truman Kimbro (T-AK-254) was a Boulder Victory-class cargo ship built for the U.S. Maritime Commission during the final months of World War II as the SS Hastings Victory.
USNS Marine Adder (T-AP–193) was a troop ship for the United States Navy in the 1950s. She was built in 1945 for the United States Maritime Commission as SS Marine Adder, a Type C4-S-A3 troop ship, by the Kaiser Company during World War II. In 1950, the ship was transferred to the Military Sea Transport Service of the U.S. Navy as a United States Naval Ship staffed by a civilian crew. After ending her naval service in 1957, she entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet, but was sold for commercial use in 1967. She was used in part to carry supplies to support the Vietnam War efforts. During the Summer of 1972 while in Da Nang Port, South Vietnam, a limpet mine was attached to the vessel by a swimmer, blowing a hole in the hull upon detonation. In order to save the ship, the Skipper ran it aground in the Da Nang harbor. The US Navy standby salvage ship USS Grasp with its crew of divers installed a box patch over the hole and pumped the water from the bilges, before moving the ship to a pier. US Army tanks hung from ship booms to heel the ship so that a metal patch could be welded in place to return the ship to duty. SS Transcolorado, she was chartered by the Military Sealift Command as a civilian cargo ship designated T-AK-2005.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .
United States