USS Coucal

History
United States
Name	USS Coucal
Builder	Moore Dry Dock Company
Launched	29 May 1942
Commissioned	22 January 1943
Stricken	15 September 1977
Fate	Sunk as target ship, 16 January 1991
General characteristics
Class and type	Chanticleer-class submarine rescue ship
Displacement	1,780 long tons (1,809 t)
Length	251 ft 4 in (76.61 m)
Beam	42 ft (13 m)
Draft	14 ft 3 in (4.34 m)
Speed	16.5 knots (19.0 mph; 30.6 km/h)
Complement	108 officers and enlisted
Armament	2 × 3"/50 caliber guns

The USS Coucal (ASR-8) was a Chanticleer-class submarine rescue ship in the United States Navy.

Construction and commissioning

Coucal was launched on 29 May 1942 by Moore Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Oakland, California, sponsored by Mrs. D. A. Scott, and was commissioned on 22 January 1943.

Service history

Coucal arrived at

Darwin, Australia

to serve submarines once more.

Between 29 October 1944 and 29 December, Coucal joined in convoy exercises with submarines out of

Fremantle, returning to duty at Darwin. Between 10 February 1945 and 3 June, she continued her tender service at Exmouth Gulf, then loaded cargo and passengers at Fremantle for the submarine base at Subic Bay, Philippines where she arrived 4 July. Aside from the period between 23 July and 18 August when she escorted British submarines to Borneo, Coucal served at Subic Bay until clearing for Okinawa on 14 September. She was ordered on to Sasebo, where she served on occupation duty until returning to San Francisco

24 November.

Assigned to

Turkish Navy

in submarine rescue, salvage, and deep sea diving techniques, and continuing west to round the world, returned to Pearl Harbor 8 January 1949.

Serving Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet, Coucal operated in the Hawaiian Islands training

Okinawa

on salvage and rescue duty.

From September 1976 to September 1977, Coucal operated from her home port at Pearl Harbor, mainly supporting submarine training. One break in that routing was towing a barge to Johnson Island. On 15 September 1977, Coucal was decommissioned at Pearl Harbor. In April 1990,[1] ex-Coucal was sunk in the first PACFLT test of a Tomahawk anti-ship missile, fired from USS Chancellorsville (CG-62)

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

^ USS Salvor Command History, 1990

[1] USS Salvor Command History, 1990