USS Saturn (AK-49)

Last updated
USS Saturn (AF-40) in 1944 (NH 99294).jpeg
USS Saturn (AF-40) in 1944
History
Flag of Germany (1935-1945).svg Nazi Germany
NameES Arauca [1] [2]
Namesake Arauca, Colombia
Owner Hamburg America Line [1]
OperatorHamburg America Line
Port of registry Flag of Germany (1935-1945).svg Hamburg
Builder Bremer Vulkan [1]
Launched1939
Completed1939 [1]
Maiden voyageAugust 1939
Out of service19 December 1939
Captured28 July 1941
FateInterned in the United States; later requisitioned by the Navy, 20 April 1942
Flag of the United States.svgUnited States
Name
  • SS Sting (1941) [1]
  • USS Saturn (1942–46) [2]
  • SS Saturn (1946–72)
Operator
Acquired20 April 1942 [3]
Commissioned20 April 1942 [3]
Decommissioned23 July 1946 [3]
Stricken15 August 1946 [3]
Identification
FateSold for scrap, 12 September 1972 [3]
General characteristics
Type
Tonnage
Displacement
  • 5,088 tons light; [2]
  • 9,760 maximum load [2]
Length
Beam55.7 ft (17.0 m) [1]
Draught24 ft (7.3 m) [2] [3]
Depth22.8 ft (6.9 m) [1]
Installed power5,600 shp [2]
Propulsion turbo-electric transmission [2]
Speed17.5 knots (32.4 km/h) [2] [3]
Complement180 (1944) [2]
Sensors and
processing systems
Armament
Notes

USS Saturn (AK-49) was a German cargo ship, built in 1939 as ES Arauca. ("ES" stands for "Electroschiff", meaning German : electric ship.) In 1941 before the US entered World War II, US authorities seized her and started converting her into a United States Navy stores ship. She was the sole ship of the US Navy's Saturn class. She was laid up in 1946 and scrapped in 1972.

Contents

Arauca was built for trade between Germany and the Caribbean, and was named accordingly. Arauca is a border town in eastern Colombia on the frontier with Venezuela.

ES Arauca

Arauca was one of three sister ships that Bremer Vulkan of Bremen-Vegesack, Germany built in 1939 for Hamburg Amerikanische Paketfahrt AG (HAPAG). [1] Arauca had two oil-fired high pressure LaMont boilers and turbo-electric transmission. [2] Her boilers fed two AEG turbo generators, which fed current to an AEG electric propulsion motor on her single propeller shaft. [1] [2]

In August 1939 Arauca left Germany on her maiden voyage, carrying general cargo to Mexico. [2] Technological problems dogged the voyage, including the superheater of one of her boilers being burnt out. [2]

By the time she had reached port in Vera Cruz and completed discharging her cargo it was the beginning of September and Germany had invaded Poland. [2] German merchant ships now risked being seized or sunk by the Royal Navy, so Arauca remained in port for the next two and a half months.

In December Arauca tried to make for Germany, but off the coast of Florida the light cruiser HMS Orion fired across her bow, so on 19 December she put into Port Everglades. [2] [3] [4] Orion had opened fire in US territorial waters, which prompted a US protest to the UK Foreign Office. [2] [3]

SS Sting

On 6 July 1941 US Presidential Executive Order 101 authorised the United States Maritime Commission to take over foreign ships lying idle in US ports. [2] On 28 July 1941 the Commission took over Arauca and contracted her management to the South Atlantic Steamship Company of Savannah, Georgia, [2] which renamed her SS Sting. [1]

Sting had been idle in port for 19 months so on 19 August was towed from Port Everglades to the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company shipyard at Mobile, Alabama for repairs. [2] There both the Maritime Commission and the South Atlantic SS Co concluded that they did not have engine-room crews skilled enough to run her transmission and high-pressure boilers, so on 14 November they offered her to the US Navy Auxiliary Vessels Board. [2] On 2 December South Atlantic SS Co handed Sting back to the Commission, which continued to manage her repairs. [2]

USS Saturn

On 6 December 1941, the day before the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the Bureau of Navigation recommended that Sting be renamed Saturn. [2] Her conversion for Navy use was meant to be completed by late December, but because of her technical complexity this was extended by several months. [2] The opportunity was therefore taken to convert her more fully to Navy specifications, including armament, but the Maritime Commission retained sole charge of her repairs. [2]

On 20 April 1942 Sting was delivered to the US Navy, commissioned as USS Saturn and classified AK-49 at Mobile, Alabama. [3] On 3 May her Navy crew tried to take her to Charleston, South Carolina were stopped by the failure of her condensate pump, steering gear, anchor windlass, make up and main feed pumps, evaporators, fuel oil service pumps and turbine-driven exciter. [2] She eventually left Mobile on 3 June but took until 14 June to reach Charleston, where she needed further repairs. [2]

On 11 August 1942 Saturn tried to leave Charleston for Norfolk, Virginia but the water circulating pumps for both of her boilers failed. [2] On 19 September she left Boston on the first of three trips supplying American bases in Newfoundland with general cargo. [3] However, in October she was drydocked in Boston for emergency replacement of her stern tube, which took until December. [2]

From March 1943 Saturn operated between east coast ports, mainly Norfolk, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland, and bases in the Caribbean such as Guantanamo and Trinidad. [3] She suffered a loss of boiler feedwater and high oxygen content in her boiler water, so in July 1943 the Bureau of Ships gave the Norfolk Naval Shipyard plans to replace much of her boiler, feed and condensate system. [2] There are no known records of whether this work was done, and nor are there records of any further technical problems. [2]

In October and November 1943 Saturn made one transatlantic crossing to England, and then resumed supply trips between the US and Caribbean until September 1944. [3] In April 1944 Norfolk Navy Yard converted her to a provision store ship and on 10 April she was reclassified AF-40. [3] While in the Norfolk Navy Yard on April 27, 1944, a fire broke out in the hold, resulting in the death of 16 men working on the ship. This accident remained classified until 2010. [5] On 2 September 1944 Saturn sailed to the Mediterranean carrying supplies for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. [3] After one trip to Iceland and several voyages to the Caribbean, she made another trip to Oran, French Algeria in March 1945. [3] Saturn resumed her supply voyages up and down the Atlantic Coast until arriving at Norfolk, Virginia on 1 July 1946. [3]

Military awards and honors

Saturn received one battle star for her World War II service. [3] Her crew was eligible for the following medals:

Decommissioning, layup and disposal

Saturn was decommissioned on 23 July 1946, redelivered to the War Shipping Administration on 25 July and struck from the Navy List on 15 August. [3] She was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in the James River, Virginia until 12 September 1972, when she was sold to Isaac Varela of Castellón de la Plana, Spain for scrap. [3]

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Betelgeuse</i> (AK-260) Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Betelgeuse (AK-260) was the last of the cargo ships in service in the United States Navy. On 10 April 1944, it was renamed the SS Colombia Victory after being launched as a Victory ship to carry cargo during World War II. She was transferred to the US Navy in 1951.

USS <i>Oglala</i> US minelayer sunk in 1941 at Pearl Harbor

USS Oglala (ID-1255/CM-4/ARG-1) was a minelayer in the United States Navy. Commissioned as Massachusetts, she was renamed Shawmut a month later, and in 1928, was renamed after the Oglala, a sub-tribe of the Lakota, residing in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

USS <i>Carina</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Carina (AK-74) was a Crater-class cargo ship, and the only ship of the US Navy to have this name. She was named for the southern constellation Carina, with most of her sister ships being named for constellations or stars.

USS <i>Appanoose</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Appanoose (AK-226) was a Crater-class cargo ship in the United States Navy named for Appanoose County, Iowa.

USS <i>Alchiba</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Alchiba (AKA-6) was an Arcturus-class attack cargo ship of the United States Navy, named after Alchiba, a star in the constellation Corvus. She served as a commissioned ship for 4 years and 7 months.

USS <i>Waccamaw</i> Oiler of the United States Navy

USS Waccamaw (AO-109) was a Cimarron-class replenishment oiler in the United States Navy. She was named after Waccamaw River. The original capacity was 146,000 barrels (23,200 m3).

USS <i>Pegasus</i> (AK-48) Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Pegasus was built in 1939 as SS Rita Maersk by Helsingør Jernskibs og Maskinbyggeri A/A, Helsingør, Denmark. Following the outbreak of World War II in Europe, she sailed to the United States where she operated under charter from the Maritime Commission as Rita Maersk and later as Larwin. After completing two cruises, she was laid up at Boston, Massachusetts, until 18 September 1941 when she was acquired by the United States Navy from the Maritime Commission. Renamed USS Pegasus on 15 October 1941, the cargo ship was converted for U.S. Navy use by Sullivan Drydock and Repair Corporation, New York City, and commissioned at New York on 3 December 1941.

USS <i>Delta</i> (AR-9) Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Delta (AK-29/AR-9) 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.

USS <i>Uranus</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Uranus (AF-14) was a Uranus-class stores ship bareboat chartered to the U.S. Navy by the War Shipping Administration for use in World War II. The ship was one of the Danish vessels idled in U.S. ports seized by the United States after the occupation of Denmark by German forces. The ship was the Danish J. Lauritzen A/S line vessel Maria, ex Caravelle, ex Helga until chartered to the Navy and commissioned on 11 August 1941 under the name Uranus.

USS <i>Hydra</i> (AK-82) Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Hydra (AK-82), ex MV Eben H. Linnell, was an Enceladus-class cargo ship commissioned by the U.S. Navy for cargo service in World War II. Hydra was in naval service from 1 January through 19 November 1943 before she was transferred to the U.S. Army for conversion to the Engineer Port Repair ship Madison Jordan Manchester.

<i>Mira</i> (AK-84)

Mira (AK-84) was never commissioned and thus never bore the USS designation. The ship was transferred to become the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Port Repair ship Robert M. Emery the day after acquisition by Navy.

<i>Tucana</i> (AK-88)

Tucana (AK-88) was never commissioned and thus never bore the USS designation. She was transferred upon launching on 13 September 1944 to the U.S. Army as the U.S. Army Engineer Port Repair ship Arthur C. Ely.

USNS <i>Vela</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

Vela (AK-89) was never commissioned and thus never bore the USS designation. The ship was transferred to the Army to become the Engineer Port Repair Ship Joe C. Specker shortly after launching. She was one of two such repair ships transferred to Navy in 1952 and served as the civilian crewed, unarmed USNS Vela (T-AK-89).

USS <i>Allegan</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Allegan (AK-225) was a Crater-class cargo ship commissioned by the U.S. Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for delivering troops, goods and equipment to locations in the war zone.

USS Autauga (AK-160) was an Alamosa-class cargo ship commissioned by the US Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for delivering troops, goods and equipment to locations in the war zone.

USS <i>Adria</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Adria (AF-30) was an Adria-class stores ship in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1954. She was scrapped in 1977.

USS <i>Briareus</i> Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Briareus was originally the cargo ship SS Hawaiian Planter laid down as a Maritime Commission type C3 Mod. at Newport News, Virginia, by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company for the Matson Line and delivered 15 May 1941. 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.

USS <i>Alcor</i> (AK-259) Cargo ship of the United States Navy

USS Alcor, AK-259, was a Greenville Victory-class cargo ship in service with the United States Navy from 1952 to 1968. She was originally built in 1944 as SS Rockland Victory, a World War II era Victory ship. She was sold for scrap in 1970.

USS <i>Altair</i> (AK-257) Cargo ship of the United States Navy

The second USS Altair (AK-257) was a United States Navy Greenville Victory-class cargo ship in commission from 1952 to 1953. She was converted into a Antares-class general stores issue ship (AKS-32) in 1953 and was in commission as such from 1953 to 1969, seeing extensive service during the Cold War. Prior to her U.S. Navy career, she had operated as the merchant ship SS Aberdeen Victory during the latter stages of World War II.

USS <i>Antares</i> (AK-258) Cargo ship of the United States Navy

The second USS Antares (AK-258) was a United States Navy Greenville Victory-class cargo ship in commission from 1952 to 1959. She was converted into a general stores issue ship (AKS-33) in 1959-1960 and remained in commission as such until 1964. She saw extensive service during the Cold War. Prior to her U.S. Navy career, she had operated as the merchant ship SS Nampa Victory during the latter stages of World War II and in the years immediately after the war.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1941. Retrieved 22 May 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Roberts, Stephen S (10 January 2010). "Class: Saturn (AF-49)". U.S. Navy Auxiliary Vessels 1884–1945. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 "Saturn". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships . Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command. 22 June 2005. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
  4. Engemann, Christel. "The case of Hedy Engemann". The Freedom of Information Times. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  5. "The untold story of the men who died on the USS Saturn at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in World War II".