USS Curtiss (AV-4)
_in_1940.jpg)
USS Curtiss when first completed in 1940.
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Curtiss |
| Builder: | New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey |
| Launched: | 20 April 1940 |
| Commissioned: | 15 November 1940 |
| Decommissioned: | 24 September 1957 |
| Struck: | 1 July 1963 |
| Honors and awards: |
7 battle stars (World War II) |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, February 1972 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Curtiss-class seaplane tender |
| Displacement: | 8,671 tons |
| Length: | 527 ft 4 in (161 m) |
| Beam: | 69 ft 3 in (21.1 m) |
| Draft: | 21 ft 11 in (6.7 m) |
| Installed power: | 12,000 shp (8,900 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h) |
| Range: | 12,000 nmi (14,000 mi; 22,000 km) at 12 kn (14 mph; 22 km/h) |
| Complement: | 1,195 officers and men |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
CXAM-1 RADAR from 1940 |
| Armament: |
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| Aviation facilities: | Helipad (fitted 1954) |
USS Curtiss (AV-4) was a seaplane tender of the United States Navy. The ship was launched on 20 April 1940 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey, sponsored by Mrs. H. S. Wheeler, and commissioned on 15 November 1940, Commander S. P. Ginder in command.
Curtiss operated out of Norfolk and in the Caribbean for training and in fleet exercises through the spring of 1941. Curtiss was one of 14 ships to receive the early RCA CXAM-1 radar. On 26 May, she got underway for Pearl Harbor from which she served on patrol as well as tending two patrol bomber squadrons. From 15 October-9 November, she voyaged to Wake Island carrying aviators, air-crewmen, and cargo to reinforce the garrison there.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Curtiss got underway immediately, firing at the Japanese planes. At 08:36, she sighted a periscope and opened fire. A torpedo from the submarine narrowly missed the Curtiss, smashing into a dock at Pearl City. Four minutes later, the Japanese midget submarine surfaced and was further damaged by gunfire before diving again, after which the destroyer Monaghan took over with a ramming and depth charge attack. Curtiss turned her attention to the air again. At 09:05, she hit a Japanese plane which crashed into her No. 1 crane and burned. Three minutes later, she splashed a plane, then began firing at a dive bomber. A bomb from this plane struck Curtiss in the vicinity of her damaged crane and exploded below decks, setting the hangar and main decks and No. 4 handling room on fire, as the plane splashed off her port beam. Despite 19 dead and many wounded, Curtiss' crew quenched the fires, then turned to for emergency repairs.
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