USS Delphinus (AF-24)

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History
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Name: USS Delphinus
Builder: Workman, Clark and Co., Ltd., Belfast
Laid down: 1915, as SS San Mateo
Acquired: 11 August 1942
Commissioned: 11 August 1942
Decommissioned: 8 May 1946
Renamed:Delphinus, 22 August 1942
Fate: Returned to the War Shipping Administration, 8 May 1946
General characteristics
Type: Store ship
Displacement: 5,230 long tons (5,314 t) full load
Length: 328 ft (100 m)
Beam: 44 ft 2 in (13.46 m)
Draft: 23 ft (7.0 m)
Propulsion: Reciprocating engines, single screw, 2,500 shp (1,864 kW)
Speed: 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph)
Complement: 107
Armament:

USS Delphinus (AF-24) was built in 1915 as SS San Mateo by Workman Clark and Co., Ltd., Belfast, Northern Ireland; acquired by the U.S. Navy 11 August 1942; and commissioned the same day as San Mateo, Lieutenant O. M. Mikkelsen, USNR, in command. She was assigned the name Delphinus on 22 August 1942.

SS San Mateo

SS San Mateo was a steamship ferry operating on the west coast of the United States. Launched in 1922, she served until 1940 in San Francisco Bay, operated by the Southern Pacific Golden Gate Ferries. In 1941 she was acquired by the Puget Sound Navigation Company, and then operated on Puget Sound until its retirement in 1969. At the time of her retirement she was the last operating vehicular steam ferry in the United States. After attempts to restore her for display in a Seattle waterfront park, she was acquired by a Canadian businessman and towed to the Fraser River in British Columbia. There she was partially scrapped; portions of her hulk are supposedly still visible in the river.

Belfast City in the United Kingdom, capital of Northern Ireland

Belfast, is the capital city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast of Ireland. It is the largest city in Northern Ireland and second-largest on the island of Ireland. It had a population of 333,871 as of 2015.

Contents

World War II Pacific operations

Departing San Francisco, California, 12 September 1942, Delphinus arrived at Auckland, New Zealand, 4 October. She operated from this base until the end of 1945, carrying chilled and frozen provisions to forward bases in the South Pacific and to the Society, Fiji, and Samoan Islands.

Auckland Metropolitan area in North Island, New Zealand

Auckland is a city in the North Island of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest urban area in the country, with an urban population of around 1,628,900. It is located in the Auckland Region—the area governed by Auckland Council—which includes outlying rural areas and the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, resulting in a total population of 1,695,900. A diverse and multicultural city, Auckland is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world. The Māori-language name for Auckland is Tāmaki or Tāmaki-makau-rau, meaning "Tāmaki with a hundred lovers", in reference to the desirability of its fertile land at the hub of waterways in all directions.

Society Islands archipelago of French Polynesia

The Society Islands are an archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean. Politically, they are part of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. Geographically, they form part of Polynesia.

Fiji country in Oceania

Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Its closest neighbours are Vanuatu to the west, New Caledonia to the southwest, New Zealand's Kermadec Islands to the southeast, Tonga to the east, the Samoas and France's Wallis and Futuna to the northeast, and Tuvalu to the north. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The most outlying island is Ono-i-Lau. The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the total population of 898,760. The capital, Suva, on Viti Levu, serves as the country's principal cruise-ship port. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres such as Nadi—where tourism is the major local industry—or Lautoka, where the sugar-cane industry is paramount. Due to its terrain, the interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited.

After calling at Manila in January 1946, Delphinus sailed for the west coast, arriving at San Francisco, California, 23 February. For a brief period she carried cargo along the west coast and to Pearl Harbor, then sailed to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Manila Capital / Highly Urbanized City in National Capital Region, Philippines

Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the capital of the Philippines. It is the most densely populated city proper in the world. It was the first chartered city by virtue of the Philippine Commission Act 183 on July 31, 1901 and gained autonomy with the passage of Republic Act No. 409 or the "Revised Charter of the City of Manila" on June 18, 1949.

Pearl Harbor harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii

Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It has been long visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is now a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The U.S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet and the right to maintain a repair and coaling station for ships here in 1887. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, was the immediate cause of the United States' entry into World War II.

End-of-War Decommissioning

Delphinus was decommissioned on 8 May 1946 in New Orleans, and was delivered to the War Shipping Administration the same day.

War Shipping Administration government agency

The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Commission and ship allocation under the WSA to Army, Navy or civilian needs were closely coordinated though Vice Admiral Emory S. Land who continued as head of the Maritime Commission while also heading the WSA.

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References

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<i>Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships</i> book

The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS) is the official reference work for the basic facts about ships used by the United States Navy.

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