Mount Hood class ammunition ship
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
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| Name: | USS Mount Hood (AE-11) |
| Namesake: | Mount Hood |
| Builder: | |
| Laid down: | 28 September 1943 as SS Marco Polo |
| Launched: | 28 November 1943 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. A. J. Reynolds |
| Acquired: | 28 January 1944 |
| Commissioned: | 1 July 1944 |
| Struck: | 11 December 1944 |
| Fate: | Exploded on 10 November 1944 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Mount Hood-class ammunition ship (Type C2-S-AJ1) |
| Displacement: | 13,910 tons |
| Length: | 459 ft 2 in (140 m) |
| Beam: | 63 ft (19.2 m) |
| Draft: | 28 ft 3 in (8.6 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 7,700 long tons (7,800 t) deadweight |
| Complement: | 267 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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USS Mount Hood (AE-11) was the lead ship of her class of ammunition ships for the United States Navy in World War II. She was the first ship named after Mount Hood, a volcano in the Cascade Range in Oregon. On 10 November 1944, shortly after 18 men had departed for shore leave, the rest of the crew were killed when the ship exploded in Seeadler Harbor at Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. The ship was obliterated while also sinking or severely damaging 22 smaller craft nearby.
Marco Polo was a cargo ship built under a US Maritime Commission contract (as MC hull 1356), by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Co., Wilmington, N.C..
The ship was renamed Mount Hood, 10 November 1943; launched 28 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. A. J. Reynolds; acquired by the Navy on loan-charter basis, 28 January 1944; converted by the Norfolk Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Norfolk, Virginia, and the Norfolk Navy Yard; and commissioned 1 July 1944, Comdr. Harold A. Turner in command.
Following an abbreviated fitting out and shakedown period in the Chesapeake Bay area, ammunition ship Mount Hood reported for duty to ComServFor, Atlantic Fleet, 5 August 1944. Assigned to carry cargo to the Pacific, she put into Norfolk, where her holds were loaded. On 21 August, as a unit of Task Group 29.6, she transited the Panama Canal on the 27th, and continued on, independently, via Finschafen, New Guinea. Mount Hood arrived at Seeadler Harbor, in Manus Island of the Admiralty Islands, on 22 September. Assigned to ComSoWesPac, she commenced dispensing ammunition and explosives to ships preparing for the Philippine offensive.
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