_underway_c1970.jpg) USSColonial (LSD-18) underway, circa 1970 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSColonial |
| Namesake | Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia |
| Awarded | 1 July 1943[1] |
| Laid down | 1 August 1944[1] |
| Launched | 28 February 1945 |
| Commissioned | 15 May 1945 |
| Decommissioned | 1970 |
| Stricken | 15 October 1976 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 8 September 1993 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 457 ft 9 in (139.5 m) overall |
| Beam | 72 ft 2 in (22.0 m) |
| Draft |
|
| Propulsion | 2 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 2 Skinner Uniflow Reciprocating Steam Engines, 2 propeller shafts – each shaft 3,700 hp, at 240 rpm total shaft horse power 7,400, 2 11 ft 9 in diameter, 9 ft 9 in pitch propellers |
| Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h) |
| Range |
|
| Boats & landing craft carried | |
| Capacity | 22 officers, 218 men |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | modified to accommodatehelicopters on an added portable deck |
USSColonial (LSD-18) was aCasa Grande-classdock landing ship of theUnited States Navy, named in honor of theColonial National Historical Park, which comprisesJamestown,Williamsburg, andYorktown in southeasternVirginia.
Colonial waslaunched on 28 February 1945 byNewport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.,Newport News, Va., sponsored by Mrs. L. L. Dean; andcommissioned on 15 May 1945.
Colonial clearedNorfolk on 26 July 1945 for thePanama Canal,San Francisco andPearl Harbor, arriving 5 September. Between 11 September and 26 December, she had duty ferryinglanding craft among the Pacific Islands and toOkinawa. She sailed from Pearl Harbor 29 December for the Panama Canal and Norfolk, arriving 23 January 1946.
Colonial participated in amphibious training out of Norfolk, conducting local, east coast, andCaribbean operations, and voyaging fromCuba andPuerto Rico as far north asNewfoundland until 15 August 1950, when she cleared Norfolk for Far Eastern duty. Calling atSan Diego en route toKobe,Colonial landed men andtanks of the1st Marine Divisionat Inchon in September, and troops and equipment atWonsan andIwon in December.Colonial was one of the last ships to leaveHungnam in the evacuation of that area.[2] She acted as "mother ship" forminesweepers on theKorean east coast for a month during this tour, returning to San Diego, her newhome port, 27 August 1951. Here she was overhauled and had underway training before returning toJapan and Korea for duty from 17 January to 4 November 1952. During this tour she supported minesweepers working in Wonsan Harbor, and took part in amphibious training.
From the close of theKorean War into 1960,Colonial continued to alternate local operations and training out of San Diego with periodic deployments to the Far East. She transported Marines to Korea from 5 August to 9 September 1953, returning to the western Pacific in October for a tour which ended in July 1954. After aiding in the development of thevertical envelopment concept ofamphibious assault employinghelicopters, she returned to the Orient early in 1955 for a tour of duty which included participation inthe evacuation of theTachen Islands.
In the summer of 1956,Colonial served as a floating laboratory in experiments withballoon-launchedrockets (rockoons). TheNaval Research Laboratory'sOperation San Diego High had the objective of studyingx-rays andLyman-alphaUV radiation produced in the upper atmosphere bysolar flares. For ten days in July, from a location 350 miles southeast ofSan Diego, each morning a balloon carrying an instrumentedDeacon rocket was launched from the helicopter deck ofColonial. ThedestroyerUSS Perkins would pursue the balloon as it drifted downwind.Observatories watching thesun fromNew Mexico,Tokyo,San Francisco, andMexico City would notify the scientists aboardColonial as soon as a flare was observed. They in turn would signalPerkins to launch the rocket – through the balloon – up to theionosphere. The operation had extensive coverage in the April 1957 issue of theNational Geographic Magazine, with a journalist and a photographer on the ship.[2]
Colonial returned to the Far East in 1957. On 30 May she went to the rescue of a groundedChinesefreighter. On her 1958–59 deployment, she provided repair parts and skilled hands for the American merchant tankerWang Buccaneer, disabled at sea in January.
Colonial served in several campaigns in theVietnam War between 1965 and 1968.
Colonial wasdecommissioned in 1970 at the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility,Vallejo, California, and laid up in thePacific Reserve Fleet,Mare Island. She was struck from theNaval Register on 15 October 1976, and transferred to theMaritime Administration (MARAD), 29 July 1992. The ship was sold for scrapping on 8 September 1993, for $353,725, to California Imports and Exports and towed toShanghai, China for scrapping.
Colonial received sevenbattle stars forKorean War service and six campaign stars forVietnam War service.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. United States Navy |
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