USS Vinton (AKA-83)

USS "Vinton" was a "Tolland" class attack cargo ship named after Vinton County, Ohio. She was designed to carry military cargo and landing craft, and to use the latter to land weapons, supplies, and Marines on enemy shores during amphibious operations. She served as a commissioned ship for 12 months.

"Vinton" was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1393) on 20 June 1944 at Wilmington, North Carolina, by the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company; launched on 25 August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. J. W. Kirkpatrick; acquired by the Navy under a loan-charter basis on 7 September 1944; converted to an attack cargo ship configuration at Baltimore, Md., by the Bethlehem Steel Company's Key Highway plant; and commissioned on 23 February 1945, Comdr. John D. Hoffman, USNR, in command. Following shakedown training in Chesapeake Bay, "Vinton" sailed via the Panama Canal zone for the Central Pacific and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 16 April. She conducted training exercises in the Hawaiian operating area for a month and one-half before she weighed anchor on 30 May and got uderway for the Marianas. Two days out, the attack cargo ship was called upon to perform an errand of mercy when an ailing seaman from USS Silversides (SS-236) was transferred via USS Gato (SS-212) to "Vinton" for an emergency appendectomy. By the time the attack cargo ship arrived at Guam on 13 June, the submariner had recovered sufficiently to rejoin his ship. "Vinton" remained at Guam until 25 June, when she headed for the Western Carolines. She arrived at Ulithi the next day, pushed on for the Ryukyus on 9 July, dropped anchor off Okinawa on the 13th and began unloading her cargo. Despite frequent kamikaze alerts and a typhoon evasion maneuver, her crew bent to the task of making inroads into the mountains of cargo in her holds. Returning to Ulithi on the 28th, "Vinton" departed the Western Carolines on the 30th and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 6 August. Slightly over a week later, the war was over. Japan—under the staggering weight of two atomic bombs and American armadas which ranged off her shores virtually unchallenged and unchecked—surrendered unconditionally by the 15th of August. On 22 September, "Vinton" commenced her post-war operations supporting the fleet and its bases with cargo lifts to Tinian; Guam; Subic Bay, Philippine Islands; Manus, in the Admiralties; Batavia, Java; and Biak, New Guinea, before she returned to Manus en route home. Departing the Admiralty Islands on 17 January 1946, the attack cargo ship arrived at San Francisco on 5 February. Departing San Francisco Bay on 24 February, bound for the east coast, "Vinton" steamed via the Panama Canal and arrived at New York on 15 March.

She was decommissioned on 16 March for return to the War Shipping Administration the following day.

Struck from the Navy list on 5 June, she soon entered mercantile service as "SS Gulf Shipper" with the Gulf and South American Steamship Co. On 23 September 1964, the American President Lines, Inc., purchased the erstwhile attack cargo ship and renamed her "President Harding". Subsequently, her ownership again changed hands on 29 September 1966, when she was purchased by the Pacific Far East Lines and renamed "America Bear". In late 1969, the Columbia Steamship Company purchased the vessel for use in the Pacific freight trade and renamed her "Columbia Beaver"—in which livery she served until late 1972, and after which time her documentary trail runs cold.

References

External links

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/v3/vinton.htm Naval Historical Center: USS "Vinton"]
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/02083.htm NavSource Online: AKA-83 "Vinton"]
* [http://ussrankin.org/id352.htm 51 Years of AKAs]