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Name | USS Pollux |
Namesake | Pollux, the southern of two bright stars in the constellation Gemini, twin star of Castor |
Builder | Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, New Jersey |
Laid down | 26 May 1939, as SS Comet |
Launched | 16 December 1939 |
Acquired | 16 January 1941 |
Commissioned | 6 May 1941 |
Stricken | 25 March 1942 |
Fate | Ran aground and sank, 18 February 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Castor-class general stores issue ship |
Displacement |
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Length | 459 ft 2 in (140 m) |
Beam | 63 ft (19 m) |
Draft | 26 ft 5 in (8.05 m) |
Propulsion | Steam turbine, single shaft, 6,000 hp (4,474 kW) |
Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
Complement | 199 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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The second USS Pollux (AKS-2) was a Castor-class general stores issue ship.
Pollux was laid down by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Hoboken, N.J. as SS Comet on 26 May 1939; launched on 16 December 1939, acquired by the Navy on 16 January 1941; converted to a general stores ship by the Brewers Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Hoboken, N.J., and commissioned on 6 May 1941.
Pollux was ready for sea on 24 May 1941, and served with the Atlantic Fleet on regular provisioning cruises.
On 18 February 1942 Pollux grounded during a storm at Lawn Point off Newfoundland and was wrecked with 93 fatalities. USS Truxtun (DD-229) was also wrecked, at Chambers Cove, off St. Lawrence harbour with 110 fatalities. USS Wilkes (DD-441) grounded at the same time, but made way with no fatalities.
At 04:14 on the 18th, searchlights were sighted revealing land 2 points on the port bow. The Commanding Officer of Pollux had just entered the bridge from the chart house, and immediately gave the order for full speed astern, hard right rudder and sounding collision quarters. But it was too late and 3 minutes later the ship grounded. Realizing that she was hard aground and starting to go down slightly by the head, the Commanding Officer ordered full speed ahead to prevent the ship from sliding off and sinking in deep water.
Due to the extremely difficult surf caused by the gale raging in the Atlantic and the bitterness of the winter weather loss of life was heavy on both Pollux and Truxtun. Heroic efforts to swim lines ashore failed due to the inability to handle them when they became oil soaked. Some of the crew attempted to swim ashore, many unsuccessfully. Finally lines with a boatswain's chair were rigged to a ledge and the remaining personnel were conveyed ashore. Truxtun broke up almost immediately after grounding and soon thereafter Pollux did likewise. The survivors owed their rescue in large measure to the tireless, efficient and in many cases heroic action of the people of Lawn and St. Lawrence, Newfoundland. [1]
Pollux was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 25 March 1942.
The total loss of life between both the USS Pollux and the USS Truxtun was 203 victims.
Arthur LeRoy Bristol, Jr. was a vice admiral in the United States Navy, who held important commands during World War I and World War II, and was an early aircraft carrier commander.
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Lawn,, is a town located at the tip of the Burin Peninsula on Newfoundland's South coast, Newfoundland and Labrador. Lawn is spread around a small harbour in a relatively lush valley. According to one local tradition it was this lushness that inspired Captain James Cook to name the place Lawn Harbour. But it has also been speculated that a Frenchman named the community after a doe caribou that he spotted there.
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USS Wilkes (DD-441) was a Gleaves-class destroyer commissioned in the United States Navy from 1941 to 1946. After spending several decades in the reserve fleet, the destroyer was scrapped in 1972.
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The Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company was a United States shipyard in New Jersey active from 1917 to 1948. It was founded during World War I to build ships for the United States Shipping Board. Unlike many shipyards, it remained active during the shipbuilding slump of the 1920s and early 1930s that followed the World War I boom years. During World War II, it built merchant ships as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding program, at the same time producing more destroyers for the United States Navy than any yard other than the Bath Iron Works. Operated by a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation, the shipyard was located at Kearny Point where the mouth of the Hackensack River meets Newark Bay in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Type C2 ships were designed by the United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) in 1937–38. They were all-purpose cargo ships with five holds, and U.S. shipyards built 328 of them from 1939 to 1945. Compared to ships built before 1939, the C2s were remarkable for their speed and fuel economy. Their design speed was 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h), but some could make 19 knots (35 km/h) on occasion. The first C2s were 459 feet (140 m) long, 63 feet (19 m) broad, and 40 feet (12 m) deep, with a 25-foot (8 m) draft. Later ships varied somewhat in size. Some, intended for specific trade routes, were built with significant modifications in length and capacity.
USS Pollux or USNS Pollux has been the name of more than one United States Navy ship, and may refer to:
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USS Pollux (AKS-4) was a Castor-class general stores issue ship commissioned by the U.S. Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for delivering and disbursing goods and equipment to locations in the war zone.
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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships .The entry can be found here.
46°52′37.1″N55°28′43.8″W / 46.876972°N 55.478833°W