USS ''Antrim'' (AK-159) was an in the United States Navy. She was named for

Antrim County, Michigan Antrim County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 23,431. The county seat is Bellaire. The name is taken from County Antrim in Northern Ireland. YMCA Camp Hayo-Went-Ha, the oldest ...

Construction

The first ''Antrim'' was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract, MC hull 2104, on 18 April 1944, at the Richmond Shipyard,

Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council.

, by Kaiser Cargo, Inc.; launched on 17 July 1944; sponsored by Mrs. F. H. Horstman; and, after her delivery to and acceptance by the Navy on 31 October 1944, was commissioned the same day.

Service history

After the completion of her fitting out, ''Antrim'' conducted her

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training out of

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, completing this by 13 December. Subsequently, pushing on for Hawaii, she reached Pearl Harbor on New Year's Day, 1945, but got underway again three days later, bound for the Western Pacific. After calling at Eniwetok, Ulithi, and

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, ''Antrim'' reached Leyte on 9 February to unload her cargo. Operating under the aegis of

Service Squadron A Service Squadron (ServRon) was a United States Navy squadron that supported fleet combat ships and US Navy Auxiliary ships. Service Squadrons were used by the US Navy from their inception in 1943 to as late as the early 1980s. At the time of th ...

9 through the end of the war with

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, the vessel carried cargo between Manus, in the Admiralty Islands, and Philippine ports. She conducted three such voyages during the periods from 19 March to 27 April; from 30 May to 22 June; and from 6 to 30 August. After supporting the

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through the autumn, ''Antrim'' departed the Western Pacific on 4 January 1946 and proceeded singly to the

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, reaching Cristobal on 20 February. Ultimately, ''Antrim'' arrived at

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, on 4 March where she decommissioned on 3 April. Delivered to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) three days later, ''Antrim''s name was struck from the Navy list on 17 April 1946. Records indicate that the ship briefly operated under the United States flag, with the firm of Dichmann, Wright & Pugh, Inc. of San Francisco, California, in 1947, before being transferred to

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registry the following year. Renamed ''Kars'' and homeported at Istanbul, Turkey, the erstwhile Navy cargo ship operated under the Turkish flag into the 1980s.

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Antrim (AK-159) Alamosa-class cargo ships Ships built in Richmond, California 1944 ships World War II auxiliary ships of the United States