USS Libra

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USS Libra (AKA-12)
USS Libra (AKA-12)
History
United States
NameUSS Libra
NamesakeThe constellation Libra
BuilderFederal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey
Laid downas Jean Lykes
Launched12 November 1941
Acquired30 December 1941
Commissioned13 May 1942, as USS Libra (AK-53)
Decommissioned12 April 1948
ReclassifiedAKA-12 (Attack cargo ship), 1 February 1943
Recommissioned28 August 1950
Decommissioned6 October 1955
ReclassifiedLKA-12 (Amphibious transport), 1 January 1969
Stricken1 January 1977
Honours and
awards		9
battle stars
(World War II)
FateSold for scrap, 17 April 1985
General characteristics
Class and type
attack cargo ship
TypeType C2 ship
Displacement10,713 long tons (10,885 t) full
Length459 ft 2 in (139.95 m)
Beam63 ft (19 m)
Draft20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Speed15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph)
Complement406
Armament
  • 1 ×
    5"/38 caliber gun
    mount
  • 4 ×
    3 in (76 mm)
    gun mounts

USS Libra (AK-53/AKA-12/LKA-12) was an

attack cargo ship named after the constellation Libra
. She served as a commissioned ship for 11 years.

Libra (AK-53) was laid down as Jean Lykes by

Kearny, N.J., under contract for Lykes Brothers Steamship Company, Galveston, Texas; launched 12 November 1941; sponsored by Lindy Boggs, wife of Congressman Hale Boggs of Louisiana; acquired by the Navy on 30 December 1941; named Libra on 9 January 1942; and commissioned on 13 May 1942. Libra received nine battle stars for World War II
service.

Operational history

World War II

Solomons and Bougainville campaigns

Completing conversion at

Solomons campaign. Libra arrived off Tulagi on 7 August, and began an unloading interrupted six times in the next three days, as enemy air attack caused her to go to general quarters and stand off to maneuver in open waters. In the early morning 9 August she heard heavy gunfire to the northwest, where Allied warships engaged the Japanese in the Battle of Savo Island
, fighting to protect the transports and their vital cargo. Later the same day, empty, she sailed for Wellington, arriving 20 August.

For the next three months, Libra sailed from

Guadalcanal operation
, building up supplies.

She returned to Guadalcanal 11 November, and her group almost immediately came under enemy air attack. The determined enemy sent another seven planes against the transports next day; all were splashed by Libra and her sisters. She sailed for Espiritu Santo on 13 November as the Battle of Guadalcanal, just south of Savo Island, raged to a victory which gave the Allies sea control off the southern Solomons. Returning to Espiritu Santo on 15 November, Libra prepared for two additional voyages to Guadalcanal during the next month, bringing cargo essential to the epic struggles of the marines to wrest the island from the Japanese.

From mid-December 1942 through March 1943, Libra, redesignated AKA-12 on 1 February, carried war equipment from

dive bombers
, three of whom they splashed. Relieved of the tow later that afternoon, Libra returned to Guadalcanal.

Aside from a repair period in New Zealand in August, Libra gave the next four months to building up the base on Guadalcanal with cargo from

Bougainville, arriving Empress Augusta Bay
on 1 November. Promptly unloading, she sailed the same day for Guadalcanal for additional cargo, with which she arrived Bougainville on 8 November, immediately to splash one of 25 dive bombers attacking her transport group.

Libra carried cargo among the New Hebrides, Solomons, and

Eniwetok on 21 July, she quickly discharged heavy equipment for the 3rd Marines on the Asan beaches, then sailed for San Francisco, arriving from Pearl Harbor
on 19 August.

Leyte

Overhauled, Libra sailed from San Francisco on 20 October for

Noumea
to Leyte and intermediate ports.

Post World War II

In the first of her post-war cargo runs supporting the

occupation of Japan, she entered Tokyo Bay on 2 September. Duty complete by 21 November, Libra steamed for Seattle
, arriving 30 November.

Serving with the

Atlantic Reserve Fleet
.

Korean War

With the increased demand on cargo facilities brought on by the

Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet
from 18 January to 12 May 1954, then trained reservists, sailing often with them to the Caribbean.

Decommissioned

Libra was decommissioned on 6 October 1955, to join the Reserve Fleet at

Maritime Administration in July 1964. The ship was redesignated LKA-12 (Amphibious Transport) on 1 January 1969. She entered the National Defense Reserve Fleet, struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 January 1977, and sold for scrapping on 17 April 1985.[1]

References

  1. MARAD
    record of ship disposal

External links

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