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Xanthus-class Repair Ship
The ''Xanthus''-class repair ships were a class of five auxiliary ships built for the United States Navy and Royal Navy. Ships of the class 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. Description 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 and later transferred to Britain under the Lend-Lease agreement. The hull alterations and armament were to be based on the ARG type, and BuShips was then to install such repair ship facilities as could be accommodated. Liberty hulls already under construction for allocation to the U.K. were selected for the conversions. In a preliminary planning meeting on 3 February 1944, an effort was made to use the pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard
The Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard of Baltimore, Maryland, was a shipyard in the United States from 1941 until 1945. Located on the south shore of the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River which serves as the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore, Baltimore Harbor, it was owned by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company, created by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which had operated a major waterfront steel mill outside Baltimore to the southeast at Sparrows Point, Maryland in rural Baltimore County since the 1880s. The yard is now the location to the west of several heavy industrial firms with a focus on petro-chemicals, a later Maryland Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, which endured into the 1990s, and the underground south entrance of the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, built in 1956–1957, carrying Interstate 895 (Maryland), Interstate 895 and the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Thruway through and under the city in the major East Coast of the United States, East Coast th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maritime Commission
The United States Maritime Commission (MARCOM) was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 1950. The commission replaced the United States Shipping Board which had existed since World War I. It was intended to formulate a merchant shipbuilding program to design and build five hundred modern merchant cargo ships to replace the World War I vintage vessels that comprised the bulk of the United States Merchant Marine, and to administer a subsidy system authorized by the Act to offset the cost differential between building in the U.S. and operating ships under the American flag. It also formed the United States Maritime Service for the training of seagoing ship's officers to man the new fleet. As a symbol of the rebirth of the U.S. Merchant Marine and Merchant Shipbuilding under the Merchant Marine Act, the first vessel contracted for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Laertes (AR-20)
USS ''Laertes'' (AR-20) was a Xanthus class repair ship in the service of the United States Navy from 1945 to 1972. Construction and commissioning ''Laertes'' was originally laid down as the Liberty ship SS ''Dutiful'' by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard on 7 August 1944. 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 repair ship by the Maryland Drydock Company of Baltimore, Maryland and commissioned as USS ''Laertes'' (AR-20) on 24 March 1945. World War II service 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, arriving at Bremerton, Washington on 1 December. She served as a preinactivatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city of Okinawa Prefecture, with other major cities including Okinawa, Uruma, and Urasoe. Okinawa Prefecture encompasses two thirds of the Ryukyu Islands, including the Okinawa, Daitō and Sakishima groups, extending southwest from the Satsunan Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture to Taiwan ( Hualien and Yilan Counties). Okinawa Prefecture's largest island, Okinawa Island, is the home to a majority of Okinawa's population. Okinawa Prefecture's indigenous ethnic group are the Ryukyuan people, who also live in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. Okinawa Prefecture was ruled by the Ryukyu Kingdom from 1429 and unofficially annexed by Japan after the Invasion of Ryukyu in 1609. Okinawa Prefecture was officially founded in 1879 by the Empi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the Russian Far East. It stretches approximately northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the north Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many minor rocks. The Kuril Islands consist of the Greater Kuril Chain and the Lesser Kuril Chain. They cover an area of around , with a population of roughly 20,000. The islands have been under Russian administration since their 1945 invasion as the Soviet Union towards the end of World War II. Japan claims the four southernmost islands, including two of the three largest ( Iturup and Kunashir), as part of its territory, as well as Shikotan and the Habomai islets, which has led to the ongoing Kuril Islands dispute. The disputed islands are k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often 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 are 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 surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941, led the United States to declare war on the Empire of Japan, making the attack on Pearl Harbor the immediate cause of the United States' entry into World War II. History Pearl Harbor was originally an extensive shallow embayment called ''Wai Momi'' (meaning, “Waters of Pearl”) or ''Puuloa'' (meaning, “long hill”) by the Hawaiians. Puuloa was r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Xanthus
USS ''Xanthus'' (AR-19) 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'' (F 175), she was laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MCE hull 2664) 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''. She was commissioned on 9 May 1945. World War II operations 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 projected assaults on the Kurils and northern Japan. The Japanese capitulation, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Diligence (F174)
A number of ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Diligence''. * was an eight-gun sloop built in 1756, renamed ''Comet'' and converted to a fireship in 1779, but sold that year. * was an 18-gun brig sloop. Originally HMS ''Spencer'', she was renamed HMS ''Diligence'' before being launched in 1795. She was lost in 1800. * was the former mercantile ''Union'', purchased in 1801 and sold in 1812. * was part of Inglefield’s 1854 Arctic expedition. *HMS ''Diligence'' was a 17-gun laid down in 1861 but cancelled on 12 December 1863. * was a destroyer depot ship, formerly the civilian ''Tabaristan'', purchased in October 1915. She was scrapped in 1926. * was a repair ship, formerly USS ''Diligence'' (BAR-18) was transferred under terms of the Lend-lease Act to the Royal Navy and returned to the US Navy in 1946. * was a base at Hythe, Hampshire for the minesweepers and motor torpedo boats of the reserve fleet, which opened in 1953. * fleet repair ship of the Royal Fleet A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Defense Reserve Fleet
The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of ships of the United States of America, mostly merchant vessels, that have been "mothballed" but can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping during national military emergencies, or non-military emergencies such as commercial shipping crises. The NDRF is managed by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD). It is distinct from the United States Navy reserve fleets, which consist largely of warships. NDRF vessels are at the fleet sites at James River, Virginia (James River Reserve Fleet); Beaumont, Texas (Beaumont Reserve Fleet); and Suisun Bay, California (Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet); and at designated outported berths. Former anchorage sites included Stony Point, New York (Hudson River Reserve Fleet); Wilmington, North Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; Astoria, Oregon; and Olympia, Washington. Through the 2010s, the oldest, most decrepit hulls at Suisun Bay were stripped of toxic ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Assistance (F173)
Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Assistance'': * was a 50-gun ship launched in 1650, rebuilt in 1699, 1712 and 1725, and sunk in 1746 as a breakwater. * was a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1747 and sold in 1773. * was a transport launched in 1771 and sold in 1802. * was a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1781 and wrecked in 1802. * HMS ''Assistance'' was a prison hulk, launched in 1769 as the 74-gun third rate . She became a prison hulk in 1796, was renamed HMS ''Assistance'' in 1805 and was broken up in 1815. * was a storeship launched in 1809 at Deptford and sold in 1821. * was a discovery vessel, formerly the merchant vessel ''Baboo''. She was purchased in 1850 and abandoned in the Arctic in 1854. * was a screw storeship purchased in 1855 and wrecked in 1860. * was an iron screw storeship launched in 1874 and sold in 1897. * was a repair ship purchased in 1900 and handed over to Ward shipbreakers in part payment for in 1937. * was a repair shi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USS Laertes
USS ''Laertes'' (AR-20) was a Xanthus class repair ship in the service of the United States Navy from 1945 to 1972. Construction and commissioning ''Laertes'' was originally laid down as the Liberty ship SS ''Dutiful'' by Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard on 7 August 1944. 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 repair ship by the Maryland Drydock Company of Baltimore, Maryland and commissioned as USS ''Laertes'' (AR-20) on 24 March 1945. World War II service 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, arriving at Bremerton, Washington on 1 December. She served as a preinactivatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Occupation Of Japan
Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States with support from the British Commonwealth and under the supervision of the Far Eastern Commission, involved a total of nearly 1 million Allied soldiers. The occupation was overseen by American General Douglas MacArthur, who was appointed Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers by US President Harry Truman; MacArthur was succeeded as supreme commander by General Matthew Ridgway in 1951. Unlike in the occupation of Germany, the Soviet Union had little to no influence over the occupation of Japan, declining to participate because it did not want to place Soviet troops under MacArthur's direct command. This foreign presence marks the only time in Japan's history that it has been occupied by a foreign power. However, unlike in Germany the Alli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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