%2c_in_1921_(NH_57796).jpg) USSAltair in 1921. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | SSEdisto |
| Operator | United States Shipping Board |
| Builder | Skinner & Eddy Corporation,Seattle Washington |
| Laid down | 18 December 1918 |
| Launched | 10 May 1919 |
| Fate |
|
| United States | |
| Name | USSAltair |
| Namesake | Altair, the brightest star in theconstellationAquila |
| Operator | United States Navy |
| Acquired |
|
| Commissioned | 6 December 1921 |
| Decommissioned | 8 July 1946 |
| Stricken | 21 July 1946 |
| Fate |
|
| General characteristics as destroyer tender | |
| Type | Altair-classdestroyer tender |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 423 ft 9 in (129.16 m) |
| Beam | 54 ft 3 in (16.54 m) |
| Draft | 20 ft 7 in (6.27 m) |
| Propulsion | Geared turbine, single propeller |
| Speed | 10.5knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) |
| Complement | 481 officers and enlisted |
| Armament |
|
USSAltair (AD-11) was thelead ship of a class of threeUnited States Navydestroyer tenders.[1] She was named forAltair, the brightest star in theconstellationAquila, and was in commission from 1921 to 1946, seeing service duringWorld War II.
Altair waslaid down as thesteel-hulled, single-screwcargo shipSSEdisto under aUnited States Shipping Board (USSB) contract on 18 December 1918 atSeattle,Washington, by theSkinner & Eddy Corporation.Launched on 10 May 1919,Edisto came under U.S. Navy scrutiny in the13th Naval District, being given the identification number (Id. No.) 4156 and initially earmarked for potential service as acollier. After a brief period of operation by the USSB,Edisto was transferred to the Navy byexecutive order on 29 October 1921 and renamedUSSAltair (AD-11) on 2 November 1921. Classified as a destroyer tender, she was delivered to the Navy on 5 December 1921 andcommissioned at theNew York Navy Yard inBrooklyn,New York, the following day, 6 December 1921.
_moored_in_Pearl_Harbor_with_destroyers_on_8_February_1925.jpg)
Converted to a destroyer tender at the New York Navy Yard, and equipped with surplus and salvaged machine tools and shop equipment selected from dismantled U.S. Navy andUnited States Army war plants in the demobilization afterWorld War I,Altair underwent her metamorphosis in nine months and thenfitted out at her conversion yard into late November 1922. She then proceeded to thewest coast of the United States viaNewport,Rhode Island;Hampton Roads,Virginia, and thePanama Canal Zone, reachingSan Diego,California, on 17 December 1922. She was assigned to DestroyerSquadron 12, Destroyer Squadrons,Battle Fleet — a unit of 19destroyers (one "leader" and three six-ship divisions) operating at that time with 84%complements as part of the "rotatingreserve." From 1922 to 1939,Altair followed her destroyers and provided support services wherever required, performing work that varied from simple repairs to rebladingturbines. She underwent yearly upkeep at theMare Island Navy Yard at6Mare Island inVallejo, California.
In 1925,Altair supported her assigned destroyers in Hawaiian waters during joint U.S. Army-U.S. Navy maneuvers designed to test Hawaii's defenses, and that summer and autumn, when theUnited States Fleet carried out anAustralian cruise,Altair visitedTutuila,American Samoa;Port Phillip, Australia; andLyttelton,New Zealand. In 1926, theoccupation of Nicaragua prompted the dispatch of sailors andMarines from ships of theSpecial Service Squadron, and later from other ships in the fleet. However, "as the danger points moved inland", theUnited States Secretary of the Navy's report for 1928 states, "it became advisable to use Marines for this duty." Accordingly, a Marine expeditionary force, some 3,000-men strong, was dispatched toNicaragua early in 1927.Altair participated in this troop lift, when she and the destroyer tenderUSS Melville (AD-2) transportedMarine Observation Squadron 1 and a rifle company from San Diego toCorinto, a port on the west coast of Nicaragua, reaching their destination on 16 February 1927.Altair then resumed her operations providing services to the destroyers of Squadron 12, accompanying them toNarragansett Bay in Rhode Island for tactical exercises before ultimately returning once more to San Diego.
When World War II began inEurope in the autumn of 1939,Altair was tending Destroyer Squadrons 4 and 6, of Destroyer Flotilla 2, Battle Force, still based at San Diego. In March 1940, however, to service the destroyers of the Hawaiian Detachment sent to Pearl Harbor in December 1939,Altair was shifted to Pearl Harbor. En route to her new duty station, she served as plane guard for U.S. NavyConsolidated PBY Catalinaflying boats being ferried toOahu, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 16 April 1940. She tended destroyers there through the end of 1940 and into 1941 as the fleet based permanently on Pearl Harbor following the conclusion ofFleet Problem XXI.
Overhauled at Mare Island Navy Yard from 6 April to 6 June 1941,Altair returned to Pearl Harbor on 26 June 1941. For the next three months she discharged her duty there until she departed Hawaiian waters on 30 September 1941 for the U.S. West Coast. Pausing briefly at San Diego from 12 to 18 October 1941, the ship pushed south, transited thePanama Canal on 2 and 3 November 1941, and arrived at her new duty station,Hamilton,Bermuda, on 11 November 1941, to provide support for destroyers operating on theNeutrality Patrol in the NorthAtlantic Ocean.
After the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor brought theUnited States into World War II on 7 December 1941,Altair maintained a routine of carrying out upkeep and repairs onUnited States Atlantic Fleet destroyers at Bermuda that continued into the summer of 1942. Underway forSan Juan,Puerto Rico, on 3 July 1942 escorted by the destroyersUSS Bernadou (DD-153) andUSS Cole (DD-155),Altair arrived at her destination on 6 July 1942, detaching the two destroyers and picking up another,USS Hilary P. Jones (DD-427), which escorted the tender toTrinidad, where she arrived on 11 July 1942. Except for brief periods atAruba andCuraçao in theDutch West Indies in early September 1942,Altair tended destroyers at Trinidad through mid-July 1943.
_moored_at_Port_of_Spain%2c_Trinidad%2c_on_1_October_1942_(80-G-31669).jpg)
Following repairs at theNorfolk Navy Yard inPortsmouth, Virginia,Altair reported to Commander, Operational Training Command, Atlantic Fleet, on 21 August 1943 and soon resumed active tender operations at Bermuda, this time in support of the destroyer anddestroyer escortshakedown group (Task Group 23.1) until shifted toGuantanamo Bay Naval Base,Cuba, where she arrived on 11 March 1945. Providing tender services atGuantánamo Bay until 3 May 1945,Altair then returned to the Norfolk Navy Yard to prepared for service in thePacific theater. While the ship was on her way,Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally and the European war ended on 8 May 1945. Prepared for "distant service,"Altair emerged from the Norfolk Navy Yard on 26 July 1945 and set course for the Pacific. Arriving in the Panama Canal Zone on 4 August 1945, the ship was still there whenhostilities with Japan ended on 14 August 1945 (15 August 1945 on the other side of theInternational Date Line in the Western Pacific andEast Asia.
Altair departed the Panama Cana Zone for Pearl Harbor on 15 August 1945. She reached Pearl Harbor on 6 September 1945 and provided tender services to small ships and craft into the early spring of 1946. She departed Hawaiian waters for the last time on 27 April 1946 and reachedSan Francisco, California, on 8 May 1945, slated for disposal within the12th Naval District.
Decommissioned at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard (formerly the Mare Island Navy Yard) on 21 June 1946,Altair was transferred to theUnited States Maritime Commission on 8 July 1946, and her name was struck from theNaval Vessel Register on 21 July 1946. Laid up in theNational Defense Reserve Fleet'sSuisun Bay, California, berthing area, the ship remained there until sold on 9 March 1948 to the Basalt Rock Company, which subsequently took delivery of and scrapped her.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.