USNS Watertown (T-AGM-6)

USNS "Watertown" (T-AGM-6) was a "Watertown"-class missile range instrumentation ship acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1960 and converted from her Victory ship cargo configuration to a missile tracking ship, a role she retained for eleven years before being placed out of service in 1971.

Victory ship constructed in Oregon

"Niantic Victory" was laid down on 12 February 1944 at Portland, Oregon, by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation under a U.S. Maritime Commission contract (MCV hull 100); launched on 25 April 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Marvin Owen; and delivered to the Maritime Commission on 18 May 1944.

Maritime service

From 1944 until 1957, "Niantic Victory" was operated for the U.S. Maritime Commission by a succession of contractor firms, beginning with the American-Hawaiian Steamship Line and ending with the Isbrandtsen Company in 1957.

Her activities between 1957 and 1960 are a mystery. She was listed in the "American Bureau of Shipping Record" as still belonging to the Maritime Commission, but no operator was listed. Furthermore, she was dropped from the active list of Maritime Commission ships in the April 1957 issue of "Merchant Vessel Register". All of this suggests that she went out of service early in 1957. This speculation, however, cannot be corroborated, because her name does not appear in any of the lists of ships in National Defense Reserve Fleet berthing areas.

Missile tracking service

In any event, "Niantic Victory" was turned over to the Navy Department in 1960 and assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service on 11 August for conversion to a range instrumentation ship.

On 27 November, she was renamed "Watertown" and designated "AGM-6". For the next 11 years, she served in the Pacific Ocean in support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Air Force on the latter service's Western Missile Test Range. She operated as a mobile tracking station, recording test data from missiles and satellites out of range of land-based stations.

"Watertown" carried instrumentation to track and record flight events for military missile and NASA manned spacecraft, extending the coverage of the tracking network over the Pacific ocean. She was slated at one time to be part of the Apollo 8 recovery team but was dropped from the program. In 1969, she called at Pitcairn Island.

Inactivation

In February 1972, the Air Force decided that it no longer required "Watertown's" services. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 16 February 1972, and she was returned to the Maritime Administration at its berthing facility at Suisun Bay, California, on 23 March. She was sold 23 May 1974 and scrapped in Pusan.

See also

* Missile Range Instrumentation Ship

References

*
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/53/5306.htm NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - T-AGM-6 Watertown]

See USS Watertown for other ships of this name.