USS Harjurand (ARS-31) was a

rescue and salvage ship Rescue and salvage ships (hull classification symbol ARS) are a type of military salvage tug. They are tasked with coming to the aid of stricken vessels. Their general mission capabilities include combat salvage, lifting, towing, retraction of grou ...

acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her task was to come to the aid of stricken vessels.

Service career

''Harjurand'' was built as ''Olesa'' in 1919 by Astilleros Cardona, S.A., Barcelona, Spain. She had a long and varied merchant career, serving in the 1920s as ''Per Skogland'' under Estonian registry, 1931-32 as ''Camberway'' for the British Sunderland Steam Shipping Co., in 1933 as ''Tento'', in 1934 as ''Marpot'', and finally under Estonian ownership again as ''Harjurand'' in 1937. Requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration, she was turned over to the Navy 1 June 1942. Although Navy owned, she was operated under contract by Merritt Chapman, and Scott, under the supervision of the

Bureau of Ships The United States Navy's Bureau of Ships (BuShips) was established by Congress on 20 June 1940, by a law which consolidated the functions of the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) and the Bureau of Engineering (BuEng). The new bureau was to ...

. ''Harjurand'' was one of the pioneer vessels in the Navy's very successful World War II Salvage Service. One of her first major operations was the salvage of cargo from mined off Florida 1 July 1942. ''Harjurand'' and other salvage ships worked from 28 March to 8 December 1943 at the difficult job of bringing up her valuable cargo of metal ores, and ''Harjurand'' succeeded in carrying some 4,500 tons of the recovered ore to Tampa, Florida, to be utilized in the war effort. For most of the next 18 months, ''Harjurand'' was engaged mainly in removing protruding parts of sunken hulks which threatened navigation off the East Coast of the United States. She worked on off Jacksonville, Florida, April 1944, at sea east of Georgia in June, off South Carolina in August, and the destroyer (DD-240) off the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...

during April 1945. At the close of the war, to which the old coal-burning ''Harjurand'' had contributed much, the contract with Merritt Chapman, and Scott was terminated and the ship was returned to the War Shipping Administration 22 May 1946. She was stricken from the Navy List 19 June 1946. Subsequently, ''Harjurand'' was sold to Miraflores, S.A., of Panama, and resumed merchant service until 1955 as ''Dodecanese''. She was scrapped in Jacksonville on 3 October 1955.

References

External links

NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive – ARS-31 Harjurand
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harjurand Ships built in Spain 1919 ships Unique rescue and salvage ships of the United States Navy World War II auxiliary ships of the United States