USS Boreas (AF-8)

USS "Boreas" (AF-8) was an sclass2|Arctic|stores ship acquired by the U.S. Navy after World War I. She served with distinction during World War II supplying food and other supplies to ships and installations in the combat zones of the Pacific Theatre.

Post-World War I construction

"Boreas" was built for the United States Shipping Board as SS "Yaquina" in 1919 at Oakland, California, by the Moore Shipbuilding Co.; renamed "Boreas" on 29 October 1921; acquired by the Navy on 6 December 1921 and laid up in reserve at the Philadelphia Navy Yard; commissioned in ordinary on 6 August 1940; towed to the Todd-Robbins Dry Dock and Repair Co., in Brooklyn, New York, for reactivation; and placed in full commission on 24 March 1941, Commander George M. O'Rear in command.

Pre-war Pacific Ocean operations

Following shakedown in the Chesapeake Bay in May, the store ship filled her holds with construction equipment and material, and a load of frozen turkeys. She set course for the Pacific, and stopped at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before transiting the Panama Canal. She topped off her tanks and cargo holds at San Diego and San Francisco, California, and then got underway for Pearl Harbor on 6 June. For the next few months, she operated a shuttle service between these ports on the U.S. West Coast and Hawaii.

Start of World War II hostilities in the Pacific

At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, "Boreas" was in San Francisco. One of the first provision ships to arrive in Hawaii after the attack, she made 10 round-trips between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor in 1942 hauling goods and material to rebuild and resupply the strategic naval base there.

Supplying advances bases in the Pacific

On 26 December 1942, "Boreas" departed San Francisco, bound for Nouméa, New Caledonia, and Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, to begin supplying advanced bases. Returning to Pearl Harbor or San Francisco to refill her holds with needed supplies, "Boreas" provisioned many of the major islands and bases in the Pacific including Samoa; Funafuti, Ellice Islands; Kwajalein and Eniwetok, Marshall Islands; Tulagi and Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands; Guam and Saipan, Marianas Islands; Iwo Jima; Okinawa; Manus; Ulithi, Caroline Islands; Efate, New Hebrides; Tarawa and Makin, Gilbert Islands; Christmas Island; and Auckland, New Zealand.

"Boreas" generally steamed alone, only occasionally rating a small escort, but the store ship never suffered damage and rarely even saw an enemy. Late in 1944, she salvaged cargo from USS|Asphalt|IX-153, a concrete storage barge that had grounded on a coral reef off Saipan during a severe storm.

End-of-war activity

After the Japanese agreed to surrender on 15 August 1945, "Boreas" carried supplies to Okinawa to support occupation forces there. Later in the fall of 1945, she received orders to move on to Japan and provisioned Wakayama, Nagoya, Sasebo, and Kure from 20 October to 18 November when orders came sending her home. "Boreas" arrived at San Diego on 23 December.

Post-war decommissioning

The store ship steamed via the Panama Canal for the Norfolk Navy Yard, where she arrived on 19 January 1946. "Boreas" was decommissioned on 15 February 1946, and her name was struck from the Navy List on 28 March 1946. Returned to the War Shipping Administration in July 1946, she was sold on 28 November 1947 to the Patapsco Steel Scrap Co. of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and scrapped.

References

See also

* List of United States Navy ships
* Supply ship

External links

* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/06/0608.htm NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - AF-8 Boreas]