Anammunition ship is anauxiliary ship specially configured to carryammunition, usually for naval ships and aircraft. An ammunition ship's cargo handling systems, designed with extreme safety in mind, include ammunition hoists with airlocks between decks, and mechanisms for flooding entire compartments with sea water in case of emergencies. Ammunition ships most often deliver their cargo to other ships usingunderway replenishment, using bothconnected replenishment andvertical replenishment. To a lesser extent, they transport ammunition from one shore-based weapons station to another.[1]
U.S. Navy ammunition ships are frequently named for volcanos.[2]
DuringWorld War II, U.S. Navy ammunition ships were converted frommerchant ships or specially built on merchant ship hulls, often ofType C2. They were armed, and were crewed by naval sailors. Several of them were destroyed in spectacular explosions during the war, such asUSS Mount Hood, which exploded in theAdmiralty Islands on November 10, 1944, and theLiberty shipSS John Burke, which was hit by a singlekamikaze attack near thePhilippines on December 28, 1944, and which was captured on film by an amateur photographer on a nearby vessel.[3] The ship disintegrated in seconds with the loss of all hands.SS Canada Victory,SS Logan Victory andSS Hobbs Victory were hit by kamikaze aircraft atOkinawa and sank.[4]
The last U.S. ammunition ships, theKilauea class, have been replaced by theLewis and Clark-class dry cargo ships, which also include carrying dry and refrigerated cargo.[5]
