USS Tidewater (AD-31)
USS Tidewater (AD-31) departs San Juan, Puerto Rico with Morro Castle in the background, date unknown. The vessel sports a new helicopter platform added to her fantail.
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS Tidewater (AD-31) |
| Namesake: | Tidewater region of Virginia |
| Builder: | Charleston Navy Yard |
| Laid down: | 27 November 1944 |
| Launched: | 30 June 1945 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Robert N. S. Baker |
| Commissioned: | 19 February 1946 |
| Decommissioned: | 20 February 1971 |
| Fate: | Leased to the Indonesian Navy, 1971, and sold, 1981 |
| History | |
 Indonesia
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| Name: | KRI Dumai (652) |
| Acquired: |
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| Decommissioned: | 1984 |
| Fate: | Unknown |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Shenandoah-class destroyer tender |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 492 ft (150 m) |
| Beam: | 70 ft (21 m) |
| Draft: | 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbine, single propeller |
| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Complement: | 1017 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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USS Tidewater (AD-31) was a Shenandoah-class destroyer tender named for the Tidewater region of Virginia.
Tidewater was laid down on 27 November 1944 at the Charleston Navy Yard; launched on 30 June 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Robert N. S. Baker; and commissioned at Charleston Navy Yard on 19 February 1946 with Captain Frank H. Ball in command.
Since World War II ended some five months before the destroyer tender was placed in commission, she remained active only long enough to complete sea trials. She did not report for duty with the active fleet, but was decommissioned and ordered to the reserve group berthed at Charleston. There, she became accommodation ship for members of the staff of the Commander, Submarine Group 3. That duty continued through the outbreak and first 15 months of hostilities in Korea. By that time, the increased need for ships to support United Nations land forces fighting in that Asian country brought the destroyer tender into her first real active service. On 2 October 1951, Tidewater was recommissioned at Charleston, with Captain Harold S. Harnly in command.
Tidewater, however, did not participate directly in the hostilities that brought her back to active duty. Instead, between late 1951 and early 1954, she operated exclusively along the eastern seaboard of the United States. After shakedown training in the Chesapeake Bay area, she reported for duty with Destroyer Flotilla (DesFlot) 4 in February 1952. At her home port, Norfolk, Virginia, she supported the destroyers of DesFlot 4 with her repair facilities. Over the next two years, the ship departed that port on a number of occasions to participate in various exercises. During the fall of 1952, Tidewater joined ships of other NATO powers in Exercise "Mainbrace" for six weeks of training. The following February, she joined other Navy ships in the Caribbean for her first of many annual "Springboard" exercises, after which she resumed duty at Norfolk tending the destroyers of DesFlot 4. In July 1953, the destroyer tender moved south to Charleston to render her services to the ships of the Mine Force. She returned to Norfolk in mid-August and entered the naval shipyard for overhaul on the 12th. At the completion of overhaul, she put to sea for the Caribbean and refresher training on 2 November. Tidewater returned to Norfolk on 1 December and resumed tending destroyers until February 1954 when she headed south to participate in her second "Springboard" exercise. Upon completion of that duty, the destroyer tender headed across the Atlantic for her first deployment with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.
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