USS ABSD-1
 USS ABSD-1 with Antelope (IX-109) and LST-120 docked January 1945 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | Floating dock |
| Keel laying | 1942/9143 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | May 10, 1943 |
| Decommissioning | October 1986 (provisional) |
| Whereabouts | Sections A, G, H, I sold for scrapping Sections B and E in reserve in Pearl Harbor |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
38,500 ts (total) |
| length |
282.5 m |
| width |
78 m |
| height |
8.53 m (keel to well deck) |
| Draft |
|
| crew |
690 |
| drive |
none |
| Lifting capacity |
90,000 t |
USS ABSD-1 (later USS AFDB-1 and USS Artisan (AFDB-1) ) was a mobile, ten-part floating dock of the United States Navy . It entered service in 1943 and was used on advanced bases to repair ships during World War II and the Korean War, and then decommissioned in 1986.
history
The ten sections of the dock were at Everett Shipbuilding Co., Everett , Washington , Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, Eureka , California , Pollack-Stockton Shipbuilding Co., Stockton , California, and Chicago Bridge & Iron Co., Morgan in 1942 and 1943 City , Louisiana . The official commissioning as USS ABSD-1 (Advanced Base Sectional Dock) took place on May 10, 1943 in Everett, Washington, under the command of Captain Andrew R. Mack. The two segments manufactured on the Gulf Coast left Morgan City in convoy on July 14, 1943 and arrived in Espiritu Santo on September 24 , the eight sections manufactured on the west coast left San Francisco on August 28 and reached their destination on October 2 a. Assembly began at the end of October, and an accident occurred on November 2, 1943 when one section sank and killed 13 crew members. At the end of 1943 the dock was put into service as an eight-part dock, in April 1944 the ninth section was used together with a section of the structurally identical dock ABSD-2 to complete ABSD-1 .
The dock remained in the New Hebrides until mid-April 1945 , when the order was given to dismantle it and move it to Leyte . At the beginning of June the dock was dismantled, on June 23 the first six sections were towed to Samar , the remaining four followed on July 7. On July 27, the first sections arrived in Manicani Bay, where construction began three days later. The remaining sections arrived on August 2nd, and the dock was ready for use again in mid-September. On February 28, 1946, the last ships were undocked, after which preparations began for the first decommissioning, which took place on March 31, 1946.
The dock segments remained in the Philippines, and in August 1946 it was reclassified as a "large auxiliary floating drydock" (AFBD). In November 1946 the sections were towed to Pearl Harbor , where they remained in the reserve fleet. After five years out of service, it was put back into service on June 2, 1951, this time under the command of Captain OJ Stien. The dock was towed to Guam , where it served as reinforcement for the base near the Korean War. In January 1955 the dock was decommissioned again. In 1970, five sections became United States Naval Base Subic Bay , where they served as a repair dock. In 1979 the dock was named Artisan . It remained in service for 16 years, then in October it was decommissioned and removed from the naval registers. However, on March 1, 1987, the name was re-entered into the register. Four sections were sold for scrapping in 1987, another sunk as a target ship. Two sections are in the reserve fleet in Pearl Harbor, two more (sections C and D) are still in active service.
Web links
- History of Artisan in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- USS Artisan at navsource.org (Eng.)