USS Gardiners Bay
USS Gardiners Bay (AVP-39) off Houghton, Washington, on 18 February 1945, a week after commissioning.
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Gardiners Bay (AVP-39) |
Namesake | Gardiners Bay, on Block Island Sound, Long Island, New York |
Builder | Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, Washington |
Laid down | 14 March 1944 |
Launched | 2 December 1944 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. George L. Richard |
Commissioned | 11 February 1945 |
Decommissioned | 1 February 1958 |
Honors and awards |
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Fate | Transferred to Norway 17 May 1958 |
Norway | |
Name | HNoMS Haakon VII (A537) |
Namesake | King Haakon VII of Norway |
Acquired | 17 May 1958 |
Stricken | 1974 |
Fate | Discarded 1974 |
General characteristics (seaplane tender) | |
Class and type | Barnegat-class seaplane tender |
Displacement | 1,766 tons (2,592 tons trial) |
Length | 310 ft 9 in (94.72 m) |
Beam | 41 ft 2 in (12.55 m) |
Draft | 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) (lim.) |
Installed power | 6,000 megawatts ) |
Propulsion | Diesel engines, two shafts |
Speed | 18.2 knots (33.7 km/h)s |
Complement |
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Sensors and processing systems | Radar; sonar |
Armament |
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Aviation facilities | Supplies, spare parts, repairs, and berthing for one seaplane squadron; 80,000 US gallons (300,000 L) |
General characteristics (training ship) | |
Type | Training ship |
Displacement |
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Length | 310 ft 9 in (94.72 m) overall; 300 ft 0 in (91.44 m) waterline |
Beam | 41 ft 2 in (12.55 m) |
Draft | 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) (maximum) |
Installed power | 6,080 megawatts ) |
Propulsion | Two Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines, two shafts |
Speed | 18.2 knots (33.7 km/h) |
Complement |
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Sensors and processing systems | Radar |
Armament |
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USS Gardiners Bay (AVP-39) was a United States Navy seaplane tender in commission from 1945 to 1958 that saw service in the latter stages of World War II and in the Korean War. After her decommissioning, she was transferred to Norway, and she served in the Royal Norwegian Navy as the training ship HNoMS Haakon VII (A537) from 1958 to 1974.
Construction and commissioning
Gardiners Bay was launched on 2 December 1944 at Houghton, Washington, by the Lake Washington Shipyard, sponsored by Mrs. George L. Richard. She commissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, on 11 February 1945.
World War II
Gardiners Bay departed
Gardiners Bay devoted the following weeks to tending planes for various patrol bombing squadrons based on Kerama Retto. Between 30 June 1945 and 17 July 1945 she was
Relieved as flagship by the seaplane tender USS Pine Island (AV-12) on 17 July 1945, Gardiners Bay tended the seaplanes of Rescue Squadron 6 at Chimi Bay, Okinawa, until 15 August 1945, the day hostilities with Japan ended, when she put to sea as part of the screen of the United States Third Fleet en route Japan.
Honors and awards
Gardiners Bay received two
Post-World War II, 1945-1950
Gardiners Bay entered Sagami Bay, Japan, on 28 August 1945, shifting on 30 August 1945 to Tokyo Bay as a part of the Seaplane Base Group of the Japan Occupation Forces. On 1 September 1945 she became flagship of the Air-Sea Rescue Unit for the Third Fleet with Rescue Squadron 4 based on board. During this service, which extended to 9 January 1946, she helped set up the Tokyo Seadrome off the Yokohama Air Station. She was then stationed at Nagoya, Japan, as tender for courier and transient seaplanes, departing on 29 January 1946 for Shanghai, China. She departed Hong Kong on 9 August 1946, proceeding via Yokosuka, Japan, the Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, and Pearl Harbor to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, where she arrived on 28 November 1946 for overhaul.
After fleet exercises along the West Coast of the United States, Gardiners Bay departed San Diego on 7 April 1947 for seaplane tender duties in the Caroline Islands; Mariana Islands; Okinawa; Qingdao, China; and Yokosuka. She returned to Seattle on 4 October 1947, made a cruise to Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands between 15 January 1948 and 5 June 1948, and made another cruise to East Asia between 15 March 1949 and 14 December 1949 which included seaplane tender operations at Guam; Yokohama, Japan; Sasebo, Japan; Okinawa; and Manila in the Philippines.
Korean War service
The
On her second Korean tour, which lasted from 12 September 1951 to 9 April 1952, Gardiners Bay supported aviation patrol units at Okinawa, Iwakuni, and Manila.
Gardiners Bay spent her third Korean War tour, which lasted from 10 July 1952 to 26 January 1953, largely as station ship off the
Gardiners Bay's fourth Korean War tour, which lasted from 3 April 1953 to 12 December 1953, was spent in tending amphibious patrol planes at Chinhae,
Honors and awards
Gardiners Bay received four battle stars for service in the Korean War.
1954-1958
After returning from her fourth Korean War tour in December 1953, Gardiners Bay made three cruises to support U.S. Seventh Fleet operations in the
Gardiners Bay returned from her last cruise in U.S. Navy service on 16 November 1957, arriving at
Awards
During her career with the U.S. Navy, Gardiners Bay earned the following awards -
- battle stars
- World War II Victory Medal
Navy Occupation Medalwith "ASIA" clasp- China Service Medal
- National Defense Service Medal
- Korean Service Medal with four battle stars
United Nations Service MedalMilitary Assistance Program. After undergoing conversion and rearming, she was commissioned into the Royal Norwegian Navy as the training ship HNoMS Haakon VII (A537) (in Norwegian, KNM Haakon VII (A537)).Conducting naval cadet training cruises, Haakon VII visited ports all over the world during her 16 years of Royal Norwegian Navy service.
Final disposition
Haakon VII was stricken and disposed of in 1974.
Notes
- Lieutenant junior grade William E. LaLonde, who was aboard Gardiners Bay with duties that included assistant gunnery officer from 14 March 1944 until he left her in Shanghai, China, after the conclusion of World War II, Gardiners Bay had one 5-inch (127-mm) gun, not three.[citation needed]
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Gardiners Bay (AVP-39), 1945-1958
- Department of the Navy Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: Norwegian Navy Ships: Haakon VII (Training Ship, 1958-1974)
- NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive AVP-39 Gardiners Bay
- Naval Warfare: Examining ships that have made an impact on Naval Warfare and Naval History: USS Gardiners Bay/Haakon VII
- Chesneau, Roger. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. New York: Mayflower Books, Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.
- Gardiner, Robert. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1982 Part I: The Western Powers. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1983. ISBN 0-87021-918-9.