USS Mackinac (AVP-13)

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For other ships with the same name, see USS Mackinac, USS Mackinaw, USCGC Mackinac, and USCGC Mackinaw.
USS Mackinac (AVP-13) ca. 1942
History
United States
NameUSS Mackinac
NamesakeMackinac Island in northern Michigan
Builder
Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington
Laid down29 May 1940
Launched15 November 1941
Sponsored byMrs. Ralph Wood
Commissioned24 January 1942
DecommissionedJanuary 1947
IdentificationAVP-13
Nickname(s)"Mighty Mac"
Honors and
awards		Six
battle stars for World War II
service
FateLoaned to United States Coast Guard 19 April 1949
AcquiredReturned by U.S. Coast Guard 21 July 1968
Stricken21 July 1968
FateSunk as target 23 July 1968
United States
NameUSCGC Mackinac
NamesakePrevious name retained
Acquired
  • Loaned by
    U.S. Coast Guard
    19 April 1949
  • Accepted by Coast Guard 21 April 1949
Commissioned11 May 1949
IdentificationWAVP-371
ReclassifiedHigh endurance cutter, WHEC-371, 1 May 1966
Decommissioned28 December 1967
Honors and
awards		Eastern Area Vessel Performance Award for Fiscal Year 1967
FateReturned to U.S. Navy 21 July 1968
Badge
  • USCGC_Mackinac_W371
  • Crest of USCGC Mackinac
General characteristics (seaplane tender)
Class and typeBarnegat-class small seaplane tender
Displacement2,592 tons (light)
Length311 ft 8 in (95.00 m)
Beam41 ft 1 in (12.52 m)
Draft13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Installed power6,000 bhp (4,500 kW)
PropulsionDiesel engines, two shafts
Speed18.2 knots (33.7 km/h)
Complement
  • 215 (ship's company)
  • 367 (including aviation unit)
Armament
Aviation facilitiesSupplies, spare parts, repairs, and berthing for one seaplane squadron; 80,000 US gallons (300,000 L) aviation fuel
General characteristics (Coast Guard cutter)
Class and typeCasco-class cutter
Displacement2,515.2 long tons (2,555.6 t) (full load) in 1965
Length
  • 311 ft 7 in (94.97 m) oa
  • 300 ft 0 in (91.44 m) pp
Beam41 ft 0 in (12.50 m) maximum
Draft12 ft 8 in (3.86 m) maximum in 1965
Installed power6,000 bhp (4,500 kW) in 1965
PropulsionFairbanks-Morse direct reversing diesel engines, two shafts; 166,525 US gallons (630,370 L) of fuel
Speed
  • 18.0 knots (33.3 km/h) (maximum sustained in 1965)
  • 12.0 knots (22.2 km/h) (economic) in 1965
Range
  • 9,900 nautical miles (18,300 km) at 18.0 knots (33.3 km/h) in 1965
  • 19,980 nautical miles (37,000 km) at 12.0 knots (22.2 km/h) in 1965
Complement149 (10
officers, 2 warrant officers
, 137 enlisted personnel) in 1965
Sensors and
processing systems
Armament
  • In 1965:
  • 1 x 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal. Mark 12 Mod 1 gun, 1 x Mark 52 Mod 3 director, 1 x Mark 26 Mod 3 fire-control radar, 2 x .50-caliber (12.7 mm) machine guns
  • 4 × Mark 6 Mod 2 depth charge projectors
  • 1 × Mark 10 Mod 1
    antisubmarine
    projector

The second USS Mackinac (AVP-13) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender in commission from 1942 to 1947 that saw service during World War II. After the war, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard from 1949 to 1967 as the cutter USCGC Mackinac (WAVP-371), later WHEC-371, the second ship of the Coast Guard or its predecessor, the United States Revenue Cutter Service, to bear the name.

Construction and commissioning

Mackinac was

Seattle, Washington, and commissioned
on 24 January 1942.

United States Navy service

World War II

First Pacific tour, 1942-1943

After three months of

Vichy government, as their cooperation was vital to the war effort there. Byrd debarked at Auckland, New Zealand, on 23 June 1942, and Mackinac then headed to Naval Base Noumea at Nouméa, New Caledonia
, on 18 July 1942.

With preparations underway for the

New Hebrides Islands
on 12 August 1942.

Despite constant evacuation alerts and numerous search plane losses, Mackinac next set up base at Graciosa Harbor in the Santa Cruz Islands on 20 August 1942. Early on the morning of 12 September 1942, two Japanese submarines surfaced at the harbor entrance to shell Mackinac and the seaplane tender Ballard and their seaplanes. The two seaplane tenders returned fire, but neither side suffered damage.

transport SS President Coolidge after President Coolidge struck two naval mines
in the harbor entrance and beached herself.

On 12 November 1942, Mackinac established an advanced seaplane base at

Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.

Mackinac got underway from Espiritu Santo with a convoy for the United States West Coast on 9 July 1943, arriving at

Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo
, California.

Second Pacific tour, 1943-1945

Mackinac returned to Pearl Harbor on 28 September 1943. After a month of transport duty between

Ellice Islands
.

When a PBY Catalina flying boat was forced down near

Fenua Tapu despite adverse weather. On 1 December 1943 she arrived at recently secured Tarawa
to tend seaplanes there through January 1944, undergoing 22 air raids during her time there.

Mackinac then steamed for

Eniwetok, and Kwajalein, Mackinac was laying out the seaplane area and assisting the construction of a naval airbase on Ebeye Kwajalein
.

On 23 June 1944, Mackinac departed for Eniwetok en route to Saipan. As the American conquest of Saipan was still in the assault stage, Mackinac was under almost constant Japanese fire while stationed there.

Relieved at Saipan on 19 August 1944, Mackinac joined the seaplane tenders

San Diego
, California, via Pearl Harbor, arriving at San Diego on 7 February 1945.

Third Pacific Tour 1945

Mackinac returned to Saipan in April 1945. On 11 May 1945, she joined a seaplane group based at

Task Group 30.5, arriving at Sagami Bay, Tokyo
, Japan, on 28 August 1945.

Honors and awards

Mackinac received six

battle stars
for her World War Il service.

Post-World War II

Following

San Pedro, California, on 29 January 1946. After repairs, she sailed for the Gulf of Mexico via the Panama Canal, arriving at Orange, Texas
, on 26 March 1946.

Mackinac was

Atlantic Reserve Fleet
at Orange in January 1947.

United States Coast Guard service

ocean station duty, in which they would perform weather reporting and search and rescue tasks, once they were modified by having a balloon shelter added aft and having oceanographic equipment, an oceanographic winch, and a hydrographic winch installed. The U.S. Navy transferred 18 of the ships to the Coast Guard, in which they were known as the Casco-class cutters
.

The Navy loaned Mackinac to the Coast Guard on 19 April 1949, and the Coast Guard officially accepted her at Orange on 21 April 1949. The Coast Guard cutter

Baltimore, Maryland, where she underwent conversion for use as a weather-reporting ship
. While this was in progress, the Coast Guard commissioned her as USCGC Mackinac (WAVP-371) on 11 May 1949. Her conversion was completed on 18 July 1949.

Mackinac was stationed at

search-and-rescue and law enforcement
operations and provided navigational and communication assistance to aircraft.

She was among a number of cutters based on the

United States East Coast that rotated among four ocean stations in the Atlantic Ocean. While on duty in one of these stations, she was required to patrol a 210-square-statute-mile (544 km²; 159 nmi²) area for three weeks at a time, leaving the area only when physically relieved by another Coast Guard cutter or in the case of a dire emergency. While on station, she acted as an aircraft check point at the point of no return
, a relay point for messages from ships and aircraft, as a source of the latest weather information for passing aircraft, as a floating oceanographic laboratory, and as a search-and-rescue ship for downed aircraft and vessels in distress.

Mackinac's first base at New York City was at

Brooklyn, New York. She shifted her base to St. George, Staten Island
, New York, on 17 September 1953.

On 13 November 1953, she came to the assistance of the merchant ship Empire Nene at 41°53′00″N 043°47′00″W / 41.88333°N 43.78333°W / 41.88333; -43.78333.

On 1 May 1966, Mackinac was reclassified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC-371. She won the Eastern Area Vessel Performance Award for Fiscal Year 1967.

Decommissioning and disposal

The Coast Guard decommissioned Mackinac on 28 December 1967 and placed her in reserve at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay. On 21 July 1968 the Coast Guard returned her to the Navy, and the Navy struck her from the Naval Vessel Register that day.

The Navy sank Mackinac as a target off the coast of

guided-missile light cruiser USS Springfield, the guided-missile destroyer USS John King, and the destroyer USS New – and despite John King's first Tarter missile scoring a direct hit, Mackinac proved hard to sink, and her hull
remained largely intact as she slipped beneath the waves.

Notes

  1. ^ The Battle of Savo Island, by Richard F. Newcomb p. 74

References

  • This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
  • NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive USS Mackinac (AVP-13) USCGC Mackinac (WAVP-371) (WHEC-371)
  • Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center: Online Library of Selected Images: U.S. Navy Ships: USS Mackinac (AVP-13), 1942-1949
  • United States Coast Guard Historian's Office: Mackinac, 1949 WHEC-371
  • 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
    .


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