USS Pleiades (AK-46)

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USS Pleiades (AK-46)
The USS Pleiades (AK-46) in March 1943
The USS Pleiades (AK-46) in March 1943
Ship data
flag IndonesiaRomania (war flag) Romania United States
United StatesUnited States 
other ship names

Mangalia (1939–1941)
Scepter (1945–1968)

Ship type Combined ship
Shipyard Cantieri Navali Riuniti, Palermo plant
Launch December 1939
Whereabouts Wrecked in the USA in 1968
Ship dimensions and crew
length
116.20 m ( Lüa )
width 15.44 m
Draft Max. 6.40-7.13 m
measurement 3495 BRT , 2022 NRT
 
crew 90
Machine system
machine Fiat - six-cylinder - diesel engine
Machine
performance 		3,200 PS (2,354 kW)
Top
speed 		15.5 kn (29 km / h)
propeller 1
Armament

2 × 76 mm guns
4 × 20 mm flak

The USS Pleiades (AK-46) was originally built for Romania as a passenger and cargo motor ship Mangalia . The US confiscated the ship in 1941 and used it as an attack transporter in the US Navy . In 1945 it was launched as a scepter and scrapped in 1968.

Construction and technical data

The ship was to order the Romanian state shipping company Serviciul Maritim Român (SMR) on the shipyard Cantieri Navali Riuniti factory Palermo under the hull number 137 to set keel . The launch took place in December 1939 under the name Mangalia - the city of the same name Mangalia in Romania - and the commissioning took place in March 1940. The sister ships Sulina , Cavarna and Balcic ordered by SMR were also built at this shipyard .

Its length was 116.20 meters over all, it was 15.44 meters wide and had a maximum draft of 7.13 meters. She was with 3495 BRT measured or 2022 NRT and had a capacity of 5,000 dwt The drive consisted of a. Fiat - six-cylinder - two-stroke - diesel engine whose power 3200 hp was. This acted on a screw , the ship reached a speed of 15.5 knots . The range was 9125 nautical miles at 12 knots . In addition to the original crew of 44 men, the ship could take up to 16 passengers.

history

Romanian combined ship Mangalia

After the shipyard was handed over to the shipping company in March 1940, Constanța became the home port of Mangalia . The ship was intended for the shipping company's new Atlantic service. On April 29th, the Mangalia left the port of Constanța for New York. Then the ship was laid up there. After Romania's entry into the war on the side of the Axis Powers on June 21, 1941, the United States Maritime Commission confiscated the Mangalia on June 25, 1941 in New York .

Conversion to attack transporter USS Pleiades (AK-46)

The ship, which was handed over to the War Shipping Administration , was acquired by the United States Navy on August 11, 1941 and had it converted into an attack transporter at the Robins Dry Dock Co. shipyard in Brooklyn, New York, which was supposed to transport military and supplies to war zones. According to the conversion plans, the ship should be able to accommodate a further 110 soldiers and officers in addition to the 50-man crew. Four 20 mm anti-aircraft guns were planned as armament , but initially only four 12.7 mm machine guns were installed. Two 76mm guns were to be added, only one was installed in the year of the conversion. The planned armament was completed by March 1943, the manning was now 94 officers and men. The takeover took place on September 3 as USS Pleiades (AK-46), the commissioning on October 25, 1941.

Operations of the USS Pleiades (AK-46)

The US Navy initially used the ship in the Allied convoys across the Atlantic to Great Britain. From November 22nd, 1941, the Pleiades drove mainly in HX convoys and the slower SC convoys from Halifax to Great Britain and on ON convoys. From 1941 to July 1943, she crossed the Atlantic about ten times towards Europe. Of these convoys, the convoy SC 107 was the most dangerous: From November 1 to November 6, 1942, German submarines attacked the convoy, which consisted of 42 ships, and sank 15 of them.

In the summer of 1943, the Pleiades added more shipping areas when it was used on routes to the Caribbean and Brazil, before returning to the North Atlantic route in November 1943. In the following year she was converted into a supplier for combat units ("General Store Issue ship"), moved to the Mediterranean from July to October 1944 and supported a convoy of infantry landing boats (LCI) during the invasion of southern France at the beginning of September . She then moved back to the United States and reached Boston on October 29, 1944. From New York she returned to Brazil, went to the shipyard for repairs in January 1945 and sailed to the Caribbean until November 1945.

On November 21, 1945, the Pleiades was decommissioned, renamed Scepter and assigned to the reserve fleet . Without ever being used again, the ship was scrapped in 1968.

literature

  • Neculai Păduraru, Reinhart Schmelzkopf: The sea merchant ships of Romania 1878-1944 (Part II) , In: Strandgut. Materials on Shipping History 61/2006, Cuxhaven 2006, pp. 101–156.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ^ Entry in Lloyd's Register
  2. ↑ a b c Păduraru, Schmelzkopf, p. 114f.
  3. ↑ a b Class: Pleiades (AK-46) , at shipscribe.com
  4. ↑ a b Pleiades II AK-46 at historycentral.com
  5. ^ Arnold Hague Ports Database: Convoy overview to the Pleiades , at convoyweb.org
  6. ^ Chronicle of the Naval War November 1942
  7. ^ Service Ship Photo Archive: USS Pleiades (AK-46) at navsource.org