USS Antares (AG-10)
USS Antares at anchor.
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
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| Laid down: | 3 July 1918 |
| Launched: | 30 May 1919 |
| Completed: | 26 July 1919 |
| Acquired: | 14 November 1921 |
| Commissioned: | 23 February 1922 |
| Decommissioned: | 2 August 1946 |
| Struck: | 25 September 1946 |
| Honors and awards: |
2 battle stars |
| Fate: | sold for scrapping, 18 September 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 11,450 long tons (11,630 t) |
| Length: | 401 ft (122 m) |
| Beam: | 54 ft (16 m) |
| Draft: | 24 ft 5 in (7.44 m) |
| Speed: | 11.5 kn (13.2 mph; 21.3 km/h) |
| Complement: | 197 |
| Armament: |
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USS Antares (AG-10/AKS-3) was an Antares-class cargo ship acquired by the U.S. Navy after World War I for use in transporting cargo, named after Antares, the brightest star in constellation Scorpius. She earned two battle stars in service during World War II.
Antares was originally built under Shipping Board contract as the steel-hulled freighter Nedmac, and constructed by the American International Ship Building Corp.; acquired by the Navy on 14 November 1921 under the terms of Executive Order No. 3570 (29 October 1921) which authorized her transfer from the Shipping Board, she was renamed Antares and classified as a "miscellaneous auxiliary", AG-10. She was commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 23 February 1922, Lieutenant Commander Howard E. Pinkham, USNRF, in command.
After fitting out, Antares joined the Fleet Train, replacing the old auxiliary Nanshan. In March 1923, the ship became flagship for the Train, Scouting Fleet, a squadron of auxiliaries that supported those elements of the Fleet operating along the U.S. East Coast. Though her unit was later administratively incorporated into the Fleet Base Force as Squadron 1, Antares continued to wear the flag of the officer who commanded the auxiliaries on the Atlantic coast. Throughout that period, the ship also served as the fleet target repair and photographic ship, a vital auxiliary to the fleet's gunnery training in the 1920s.
Employed at East Coast ports and operating areas, ranging from the Southern Drill Grounds to the Caribbean, Antares, like other naval vessels, occasionally gathered oceanographic data in the course of her voyages; she re-plotted landmarks for range finder and compass calibration charts, furnishing the Hydrographic Office with data needed to complete the calibration chart of Culebra, Puerto Rico, during the fiscal year 1924. During this time period, Antares participated in fleet concentrations and maneuvers in Cuban waters and in the Panama Canal Zone. Antares brought the planes of Utility Squadron 2 (VJ-2) back to Naval Air Station (NAS), Hampton Roads, following the winter maneuvers in 1925, and for the winter maneuvers of 1926, transported three assembled and one crated plane from VJ-2 to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, where they towed sleeve targets for the Scouting Fleet's cruisers. Antares then transported VJ-2 to Coco Solo, and from there back to Guantanamo Bay. She again served as an aviation transport that summer, returning to Cuban waters in company with the repair ship Vestal.
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