USS Manatee (AO-58)
Manatee at Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands in 1969
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | USS Manatee |
Namesake | Manatee River in Florida |
Builder | Sparrows Point, Maryland |
Laid down | 28 August 1943 |
Launched | 18 February 1944 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. Paul V. McNutt |
Commissioned | 6 April 1944 |
Decommissioned | July 1973 |
Stricken | 14 August 1973 |
Fate | Sold for scrapping, 10 December 1973 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | fleet oiler |
Type | T3-S2-A3 tanker hull |
Displacement |
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Length | 553 ft (169 m) |
Beam | 75 ft (23 m) |
Draft | 32 ft 4 in (9.86 m) |
Propulsion | Geared turbines, twin screws, 30,400 shp (22,669 kW) |
Speed | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Capacity | 146,000 barrels |
Complement | 314 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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Service record | |
Operations: | World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War |
Awards: |
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The USS Manatee (AO-58)—the second vessel of the United States Navy to bear the name
Manatee was laid down 28 August 1943 by the Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard, Inc. of
Service history
World War II
Shortly after a ten-day shakedown period, Manatee departed the
From the Admiralties, Manatee proceeded north to support the forces then covering the
Statistics regarding the distance that the Manatee traveled in its first year of service and the amounts of oil and gasoline the ship transported and discharged are impressive. Manatee steamed 65,205 nautical miles (120,760 km; 75,037 mi) during 198 days at sea between 6 April 1944, and 6 April 1945.[2] In its support of Pacific land, sea, and air operations, the Manatee discharged in just that twelve-month period 1,319,468 barrels of black oil; 39,476 barrels of diesel oil; and 3,250,993 gallons of gasoline.[2] Each of those replenishment totals would, of course, increase appreciably by war's end.
Post-war
With the formal
At San Francisco, her rig for fueling at sea was removed and Manatee began 20 months' service as an
Korean War
On 17 March 1951 Manatee arrived in Japanese waters to begin her first annual WesPac deployment. After brief periods at
For the next five years Manatee's operating schedule continued to be six months in the western Pacific, six months on the west coast. During this period, she participated in fleet operations and in underway training exercises, as well as undergoing regular overhauls. Included in her Pacific deployment for 1954 was the replenishment of the ships present in the
Vietnam War
Scheduled for only four months deployment in the western Pacific in 1958, mid-May through mid-September, Manatee remained an extra month to service the ships called to the area during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. The following year, after her four months WestPac duty, Manatee was chosen, because of consistently efficient service, to take part in a joint Canadian-American replenishment demonstration held 8 October 1959 for the 14th Annual Conference of the National Defense Transportation Association.[citation needed]
In the year that followed Manatee continued to alternate duty on the west coast with Far Eastern service. She was one of seven ships chosen to visit Australia, 29 April–13 May, for the 1963 Battle of the Coral Sea celebration. With the stepped-up operations in Vietnam, Manatee's 1964 WestPac tour was extended to 8½ months, May 1964 through January 1965. During this period she operated principally in the South China Sea. South China Sea operations also occupied most of her 1966, 1967, and 1968 tours, replenishing the ships of the 7th Fleet on patrol in that area in support of the Vietnam War.[citation needed]
After refueling the aircraft carrier
Decommissioned in July 1973, Manatee was struck from the
References
- ^ "Manatee I (S. P. 51)", Naval History and Heritage Command, United States Navy, Washington Navy Yard, D.C. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
- ^ a b Mana-T-Times (6 April 1945) "Published at Sea Aboard U.S.S. Manatee AO-58" and distributed to crew members to celebrate the ship's first year of service; typewritten and mimeographed on 8"x13" (20 cm x 33 cm) pulp paper, 10 pages.
- ^ Manuscript, information and quotations from original letter, 4 pages, 29 November 1945, handwritten by PhM2 Leland T. Larsen on the USS Manatee, c/o Fleet Post Office, San Francisco, California, to honorably discharged shipmate Graham S. Fulghum, Sr., in Raleigh, North Carolina. Personal collection of Manatee-related photographs, manuscripts, imprints, and artifacts (1944-1945) owned by Robert N. Fulghum, Chapel Hill, NC. Collection being prepared for donation to the University Archives, World War II Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reviewed 5 June 2017.
- ^ a b c "Oil Spill Skipper Ousted", The New York Times, 24 November 1971. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
- ^ "Navy Investigating Oil Spillage And Reason for Delay in Report", The New York Times, 5 September 1971. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
Further reading
- This Wikipedia page incorporates some text from a reference in the public domain, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Related text about the USS Manatee can be found in that naval reference.
- "AO-58 Manatee" Service Ship Photo Archive. Retrieved 12 March 2007.
- "Navy Sends Party To Mop Up Slick". The Press-Courier. Oxnard, California. Associated Press. 24 August 1971. p. 3.
- Wildenberg, Thomas (1996). Gray Steel and Black Oil: Fast Tankers and Replenishment at Sea in the U.S. Navy, 1912–1995. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1996. Retrieved 7 July 2017.