USS Ulysses (ARB-9)

The USS "Ulysses" (ARB-9) was one of 12 "Aristaeus"-class battle damage repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II. Named for Ulysses (a character in Greek mythology and the protagonist of Homer's epic poem, the "Odyssey", which tells of his arduous voyage back to Ithaca, his home, after the Trojan War), she was the second U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.

Originally slated for construction as "LST-967" but redesignated ARB-9 on 14 April 1944 and named Ulysses on 28 April 1944, the ship was laid down on 2 November 1944 at Hingham, Massachusetts by the Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard; launched on 2 December 1944; and commissioned on 27 December 1944. After proceeding to Baltimore, she was decommissioned on 9 January 1945; converted to a battle damage repair ship by the Maryland Drydock Company; and recommissioned on 20 April 1945 with Lieutenant James L. Johnstone, USNR, in command. In May, the new battle damage repair ship conducted shakedown exercises in Chesapeake Bay; then, on the 22nd, she departed Norfolk in company with USS "Patroclus" (ARL-19). She steamed via the Panama Canal and San Pedro and arrived at San Francisco on the morning of 1 June. There, she loaded stores and pontoons before getting underway from San Francisco Bay on the 28th. After "Ulysses" had been at sea for only six hours, the bolts, plates, and turnbuckles holding the pontoons in place began to show signs of bending under the stress of the ocean voyage, and the ship was ordered back to San Francisco for additional work on the pontoon mounts. At noon on 6 July she again got underway and set her course, via Pearl Harbor and Eniwetok, for the Marianas. She arrived at Saipan on 6 August (just over a week before Japan capitulated) and reported to Commander, Service Division 103. During the remainder of 1945, she carried out repair assignments while based in turn at Saipan and at Okinawa. At Buckner Bay on 9 and 10 October 1945, she weathered a devastating typhoon during which she collided three times with LST-717. The repair ship lost three anchors in attempting to hold her position in the anchorage during the height of the storm and emerged from the ordeal with a six-foot hole in one side. In January, 1946 "Ulysses" shifted operations to Shanghai; then, in March, she set her course for the United States. After transiting the Panama Canal and unloading ammunition at Charleston in mid-May, she proceeded to Jacksonville for preservation work. On 3 September she reported to the 16th Fleet and, on 28 February 1947 she was decommissioned and joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs, Florida. She remained there until 01 January 1961 when her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register.

"Ulysses" was transferred to West Germany on 07 June 1961 and renamed FGS "Odin" (A512). Her final fate is unknown.

ee also

* SS "Ulysses" (Panama Collier No. 1)

References

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