USS Volans (AKS-9)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
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| Ordered: |
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| Laid down: | 19 October 1942 |
| Launched: | 2 February 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 31 March 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 17 June 1946 |
| Struck: | 17 July 1946 |
| Fate: | scrapped in 1965 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 4,023 t.(lt) 14,350 t.(fl) |
| Length: | 441 ft 7 in (134.59 m) |
| Beam: | 56 ft 11 in (17.35 m) |
| Draught: | 27 ft 7 in (8.41 m) |
| Propulsion: | reciprocating steam engine, single shaft, 2,500hp |
| Speed: | 11 kts |
| Endurance: | 17,000 miles |
| Complement: | 195 |
| Armament: | one 5"/38 dual purpose gun mount, one single 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, eight single 20mm gun mounts |
USS Volans (AKS-9) was an Acubens-class general stores issue ship commissioned by the U.S. Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for delivering and disbursing goods and equipment to locations in the war zone.
Liberty ship SS Edward Preble was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MCE hull 772) on 19 October 1942 at South Portland, Maine, by the New England Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 2 February 1943; sponsored by Miss Beverly Brown; renamed Volans and designated AKS-9 on 13 November 1943; and acquired by the Navy on 2 December 1943. Taken to the Tampa Bay Shipbuilding Co., Inc., Volans was converted for naval service at that yard, the work lasting into the following year. On 31 March 1944, Volans (AKS-9) was commissioned at Tampa, Florida, Comdr. Sherman R. Perie, USNR, in command.
Following her shakedown training in Chesapeake Bay and post-shakedown availability at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Volans loaded her initial cargo and got underway for the Panama Canal Zone on 11 May 1944. After transiting the Panama Canal, the stores issue ship experienced a two-day layover at Balboa, on the Pacific Ocean side of the isthmian waterway, before she sailed on 28 May for the New Hebrides Islands.
Over the next year, Volans performed a vital service to the fleet as a stores issue ship. In the course of her important but unglamorous duties, she traveled from port to port, unescorted, proceeding independently from locales ranging from the Solomon Islands to the Carolines; and from the Palaus to the Admiralties. Ports of call included Guadalcanal; Tulagi; Emirau (Green Islands); Noumea, New Caledonia; the Russell Islands; Munda, New Georgia; Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides; Finschhafen and Hollandia, New Guinea; Manus; Ulithi; Kossol Roads; Peleliu; and the islands of Guam and Saipan. In addition, she also operated for a time out of Leyte in the Philippines.
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