USS Williamsburg (AGC-369)
_in_1950.jpg)
USS Williamsburg in 1950
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| History | |
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| Name: | Aras |
| Owner: | Hugh J. Chisholm |
| Builder: | Bath Iron Works |
| Laid down: | 19 March 1930 |
| Launched: | 8 December 1930 |
| Acquired: | 15 January 1931 |
| Fate: | Acquired by the US Navy, 24 April 1941 |
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| Name: | USS Williamsburg |
| Namesake: | Williamsburg, Virginia |
| Acquired: | 24 April 1941 |
| Commissioned: | 7 October 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 June 1953 |
| Struck: | 1 April 1962 |
| Fate: | Transferred to National Science Foundation, 9 August 1962 |
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| Name: | Anton Bruun |
| Namesake: | Anton Frederik Bruun |
| Operator: | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
| Acquired: | 9 August 1962 |
| Fate: |
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| General characteristics (in US Navy service) | |
| Displacement: | 1,805 long tons (1,834 t) full load |
| Length: | 243 ft 9 in (74.30 m) |
| Beam: | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Winton diesel engines, 1,100 bhp (820 kW) |
| Speed: | 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph) |
| Complement: | 81 |
| Armament: |
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USS Williamsburg was a US Navy gunboat. A former private yacht, it also served as a presidential yacht from 1945 to 1953.
The steel-hulled, diesel-powered yacht Aras was laid down on 19 March 1930 by the Bath Iron Works; launched on 8 December 1930; and delivered to wood-pulp magnate Hugh J. Chisholm on 15 January 1931.
Aras displaced 1,805 tons fully loaded; with a length of 243 feet; 9 inches; a beam of 36 feet; and a draft of 14 feet. Her two Winton diesels generated 1,100 bhp, with a speed of 13.5 knots
The U.S. Navy acquired Aras on 24 April 1941, and renamed her Williamsburg. The former pleasure craft entered the Brewer Drydock and Repair Co., of Brooklyn, New York, on 23 June for conversion into a gunboat.
USS Williamsburg (PG-56) was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 7 October 1941, with Lt. Commander Frederick S. Hall as her commanding officer. Williamsburg was ordered to the Norfolk Navy Yard to complete fitting-out, arriving on 5 November.
As a gunboat, Williamsburg was armed with two 3-inch gun mounts, six .50 cal (12.7 mm) gunsiber machine guns, two .30 cal. Lewis machine guns, two depth charge tracks, one Y-gun depth charge projector, 16 rifles, and 10 pistols. Her crew complement was 81.
After final alterations, the gunboat departed Norfolk on 2 December, touched briefly at Washington, D.C., and eventually arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 6 December, the day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Williamsburg departed Halifax on 8 December, bound for Iceland; via Hvalfjörður; and reached Reykjavík later in December 1941. She arrived at a time when the newly established Naval Operating Base (NOB), Iceland, was encountering difficulties. Rear Admiral James L. Kauffman, the first commandant of NOB Iceland, had arrived in Reykjavík in the battleship USS Arkansas (BB-33) shortly after the United States entered the war. He found that no quarters existed ashore, either for himself or for his staff. Moreover, while tentative arrangement had been made to assign a station ship to Reykjavík, the congestion of shipping there and the shortage of space made a permanently pier-moored ship an impossibility. Therefore, it was necessary to have a ship that could be anchored clear of the docks. The problem was solved when Admiral Kauffman transferred his flag from Arkansas to Williamsburg at Hvalfjörður on 23 December. Since the Army's Port Authority in Iceland at that time was also in need of headquarters, its commanding officer and his staff were also accommodated in Williamsburg.
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Wikipedia