.png) USNSGeneral Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10) underway after conversion into amissile range instrumentation ship. She was originallyUSSGeneral Harry Taylor (AP-145) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name |
|
| Namesake | |
| Builder | |
| Laid down | 22 February 1943 |
| Launched | 10 October 1943 |
| Sponsored by | Mrs. Mamie M. McHugh |
| Christened | 2 October 1943 |
| Acquired | 29 March 1944 |
| Commissioned | 1 April 1944 (ferry) |
| Decommissioned | 10 April 1944 (ferry) |
| Identification |
|
| Commissioned | 8 May 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 13 June 1946 |
| Stricken | 3 July 1946 |
| Fate | ToU.S. Army Transport Service |
| Renamed | USATGeneral Harry Taylor |
| Operator | U.S. Army Transport Service |
| In service | after 3 July 1946 |
| Out of service | 1 March 1950 |
| Fate | ToMSTS |
| Renamed | USNSGeneral Harry Taylor |
| Reclassified | T-AP-145, 1 March 1950 |
| Operator | MSTS |
| In service | 1 March 1950 |
| Out of service | 19 September 1958 |
| Stricken | 10 July 1958 |
| Fate | ToU.S. Air Force |
| Operator | U.S. Air Force |
| Acquired | 15 July 1961 |
| Renamed | USAFSGeneral Hoyt S. Vandenberg |
| Namesake | Hoyt S. Vandenberg |
| In service | 1 June 1963 |
| Out of service | 1 July 1964 |
| Identification |
|
| Fate | ToMSTS |
| Renamed | USNSGeneral Hoyt S. Vandenberg |
| Reclassified | T-AGM-10, 1 July 1964 |
| In service | 1 July 1964 |
| Out of service | 1983 |
| Stricken | 29 April 1993 |
| Fate | NDRF James River, MovieVirus, NDRF |
| In service | 2007 |
| Out of service | 2008 |
| Fate | Sunk as an artificial reef 27 May 2009 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | General G. O. Squier-classtransport ship |
| Displacement | 9,950 tons (light), 17,250 tons (full) |
| Length | 522 ft 10 in (159.36 m) |
| Beam | 71 ft 6 in (21.79 m) |
| Draft | 24 ft (7.32 m) |
| Propulsion | single-screwsteam turbine with 9,900 shp (7,400 kW) |
| Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h) |
| Capacity | 3,224 troops |
| Complement | 356 (officers and enlisted) |
| Armament |
|
USNSGeneral Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10) (originally namedUSSGeneral Harry Taylor (AP-145)) was aGeneral G. O. Squier-classtransport ship in theUnited States Navy inWorld War II named in honor ofU.S. ArmyChief of EngineersHarry Taylor. She served for a time as army transportUSATGeneral Harry Taylor, and was reacquired by the navy in 1950 asUSNSGeneral Harry Taylor (T-AP-145).
Placed in reserve in 1958, she was transferred to theU.S. Air Force in 1961 and renamedUSAFSGeneral Hoyt S. Vandenberg in 1963 in honor of theformer Air Force Chief of Staff. She was reacquired by the U.S. Navy in 1964 asUSNSGeneral Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10).
Retired in 1983,[2] and struck from theNaval Vessel Register in 1993, she was to be sunk as anartificial reef originally intended for the spring of 2008,[3] but instead was placed under Federal Lien to be auctioned off for payment recovery in December 2008 atNorfolk Federal Court. A group of banks and financiers from Key West bought the vessel off the auction block and it was docked at the East Quay Pier of Key West Harbor. The ship was sunk 27 May 2009 and is the second-largest artificial reef in the world, after the aircraft carrierUSS Oriskany.[4][5]
The unnamedC4-S-A1-design transport was laid down under aUnited States Maritime Commission contract (MC Hull No. 702) on 22 February 1943 atRichmond, California, byKaiser Co., Inc., Yard 3; namedGeneral Harry Taylor (AP-145) on 2 October 1943; launched on 10 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Mamie M. McHugh; acquired by the Navy on 29 March 1944; placed in ferry commission on 1 April 1944 for transfer toPortland, Oregon, for conversion to a transport by Kaiser Co., Inc.,Vancouver, Washington; decommissioned on 10 April 1944; and commissioned on 8 May 1944 at Portland.
Following shakedown offSan Diego,General Harry Taylor sailed fromSan Francisco on 23 June 1944 with troop reinforcements forMilne Bay, New Guinea. After returning to San Francisco on 3 August with veterans of theGuadalcanal campaign embarked, she continued transport voyages between San Francisco and island bases in the western Pacific. During the next 10 months, she steamed to New Guinea, theSolomons,New Caledonia, theMarianas, theNew Hebrides, thePalaus, and thePhilippines, carrying troops and supplies, until 29 June 1945 when she departed San Francisco for duty in the Atlantic.
With the European war over,General Harry Taylor made two "Magic Carpet" voyages toMarseille and back, carrying returning veterans of the fighting in that theater. Next she sailed twice toKarachi, India, via theSuez Canal. Returning toNew York on 3 January 1946, the transport then began the first of four voyages toBremerhaven, Germany, andLe Havre, France. She reached New York again on 21 May 1946 and decommissioned on 13 June atBaltimore. She was stricken from theNavy Register on 3 July 1946.
General Harry Taylor served for a time with the U.S.Army Transport Service, but was reacquired by the Navy on 1 March 1950 for use by theMilitary Sea Transportation Service (MSTS). She was reinstated on the Navy List on 28 April 1950. Her early duties consisted mainly of carrying troops, dependents, and large numbers of European refugees. USNSGeneral Harry Taylor (T-AP-145) operated in a typical year to theCaribbean,Mediterranean, and in northern European waters. In 1957, she took part in the Hungarian Relief program, transporting several thousand refugees of the short-livedHungarian Revolution to Australia. She was placed in ready reserve on 19 September 1957; stricken from the Naval Register on 10 July 1958 and transferred back to the Maritime Administration the same day. She was placed in theNational Defense Reserve Fleet atBeaumont, Texas.
General Harry Taylor was then transferred to the U.S. Air Force, on 15 July 1961, and was renamed USAFSGeneral Hoyt S. Vandenberg on 11 June 1963.
On 1 July 1964,General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was acquired by the Navy and designated T-AGM-10, as amissile range instrumentation ship, one of ten such ships transferred from the Commander, Air Force Eastern Test Range, to MSTS. In 1974 the ship, commanded by Captain Anderson, deployed to Dakar, Senegal, to participate in theGlobal Atmospheric Research Program. "Equipped with extremely accurate and discriminating radar and telemetry equipment," she tracked and analyzed "re-entry bodies in the terminal phase of ballistic missile test flights," carrying out those missile and spacecraft tracking duties in both Atlantic and Pacific waters until her retirement in 1983.[2] She was ultimately stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 April 1993.
In 1998, some scenes of thehorror/sci-fi filmVirus were filmed aboard the ex-General Hoyt S. Vandenberg. The ship substituted for a fictional Russian vessel called theAkademikVladislav Volkov, and some of theCyrillic lettering applied for the film is still visible on the hull today.[1]
The ship was transferred to the Maritime Administration on 1 May 1999. Her projected transfer to thestate of Florida, for use as anartificial reef, received approval on 13 February 2007. The ship was sunk 6 miles (10 km) off theFlorida Keys in theFlorida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The sinking was originally set to take place on 15 May 2008 but was postponed because the ship was placed under "Federal Arrest" by a US Federal Court for failure to pay shipyard fees related to the clean-up and preparation for the sinking. She was later ordered to be sold at auction to pay the shipyard fees. A group of banks and financiers from Key West was able to arrange to pay the fees and title of the ship was transferred to the city of Key West.
On 12 April 2009, theVandenberg left the shipyard in Norfolk, VA and began the long tow to Key West.[6] On 22 April 2009 she arrived in the Key West Harbor where she was moored at the East Quay Pier. The sinking took place on Wednesday, 27 May 2009.[7][8]
_wreck_off_Key_West_in_January_2015.JPG)
TheVandenberg was deployed by Key West–based economic development company Reefmakers. Beginning in 1996, Reefmakers set out to create an artificial reef that benefited the local economy and ecosystem of whichever city it was set to be deployed in.[9] From the pre- to post-USNSVandenberg deployment period, there was a 40.1% increase in the total number of users (scuba divers, snorkelers, and others) on the surrounding natural reefs. A 23.5% increase in recreational scuba diving use occurred on the natural reefs representing 5,214 dives, which is in contrast to a 442% increase (34,394 dives) in the share of recreational scuba diving that occurred on artificial reefs. However, the share of total use on natural reefs did decline from 67% in the pre-deployment period to 46.5% in the post-deployment period. However, the increase in total demand effect dominated the substitution effect of switching from natural to artificial reefs resulting in an increase in total use on the surrounding natural reefs. Thus, the hypothesis that introduction of the USNSVandenbergas an artificial reef would reduce use (pressure) on the surrounding natural reefs is not supported in a study made by theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.[10]
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere. A second entry can be foundhere.Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 2009 | |
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