USS Mobjack (AVP-27/AGP-7) was a motor torpedo boat tender

Motor torpedo boat tender

Motor torpedo boat tender is a type of ship used by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The Motor torpedo boat tender's task was to act as a tender in remote areas for patrol boats and to provide the necessary fuel and provisions for the torpedo boats she was responsible for...

 that served in the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 from 1943 to 1946.

Construction and early deployment

Mobjack was laid down as a seaplane tender

Seaplane tender

A seaplane tender is a ship that provides facilities for operating seaplanes. These ships were the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War.-History:...

, AVP‑27, by Lake Washington Shipyard

Lake Washington Shipyard

Lake Washington Shipyards was a shipyard in Houghton, Washington on the shore of Lake Washington. Today the shipyards are the site of the lakeside Carillon Point business park...

, Houghton

Houghton, Washington

Houghton is one of the lakeside neighborhoods of the city of Kirkland, Washington. Consisting mostly of upscale, single-family homes, Houghton overlooks Lake Washington and is one of the wealthier districts of the Eastside suburbs of Seattle. The village was named for Willard Houghton, a local...

 Washington, on 25 February 1942 and launched on 2 August 1942, sponsored by Mrs. H. R. Peck. She was reclassified as a motor torpedo boat tender and redesignated AGP‑7 on 11 March 1943 and commissioned

Ship commissioning

Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

 on 17 October 1943 with Commander

Commander

Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...

 D. B. Coleman in command.

Following shakedown

Shakedown (testing)

A shakedown is a period of testing or a trial journey undergone by a ship, aircraft or other craft and its crew before being declared operational. Statistically, a proportion of the components will fail after a relatively short period of use, and those that survive this period can be expected to...

 off southern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Mobjack departed San Diego, California, for the Southwest Pacific

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

 on 14 December 1943. Steaming via New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 and the New Hebrides

New Hebrides

New Hebrides was the colonial name for an island group in the South Pacific that now forms the nation of Vanuatu. The New Hebrides were colonized by both the British and French in the 18th century shortly after Captain James Cook visited the islands...

, she arrived at Rendova

Rendova Island

Rendova Island is an island, part of the New Georgia Islands of Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, east of Papua New Guinea. There are two indigenous languages spoken on Rendova Island: the Austronesian language Ughele in the north, and the Papuan language Touo in the south.The black-sand...

, British Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

, on 14 January 1944 to begin duty with Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons, South Pacific (SOPAC). She trained and supplied patrol torpedo boats

PT boat

PT Boats were a variety of motor torpedo boat , a small, fast vessel used by the United States Navy in World War II to attack larger surface ships. The PT boat squadrons were nicknamed "the mosquito fleet". The Japanese called them "Devil Boats".The original pre–World War I torpedo boats were...

 (PT boats) in the New Georgia

New Georgia

New Georgia is the largest island of the Western Province of the Solomon Islands.-Geography:This island is located in the New Georgia Group, an archipelago including most of the other larger islands in the province...

 area until 6 March 1944, when she steamed to the Treasury Islands

Treasury Islands

Treasury Islands are a small group of islands a few kilometers to the south of Bougainville and 24 kilometers from the Shortland Islands. They form part of the Western Province of the Solomon Islands. The two largest islands in the Treasuries are Mono Island and the smaller Stirling Island...

 and thence to the motor torpedo boat

Motor Torpedo Boat

Motor Torpedo Boat was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the Royal Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy.The capitalised term is generally used for the Royal Navy boats and abbreviated to "MTB"...

 base, Emirau

Emirau Island

Emirau Island, also called Emira, is an island in the Bismarck Archipelago located at . It is currently part of the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. The local language is a dialect of the Mussau-Emira language...

, arriving on 23 March 1944. In mid‑May 1944 she returned to the Treasury Islands, where she overhauled PT boats and repaired and tended the motor gunboat

Gunboat

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...

s (PGMs) and landing craft infantry

Landing Craft Infantry

The Landing craft, Infantry or LCI were several classes of sea-going amphibious assault ships of the Second World War utilized to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches. They were developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially...

 gunboats (LCI(G)s) of Task Group 30.3 into July 1944.

Employed briefly in transporting spares and other materiel, she departed for British New Guinea on 23 July 1944, arriving at Dreger Harbor on 27 July 1944 to begin service under Commander, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons, 7th Fleet

United States Seventh Fleet

The Seventh Fleet is the United States Navy's permanent forward projection force based in Yokosuka, Japan, with units positioned near Japan and South Korea. It is a component fleet force under the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with...

. During the greater part of August 1944 she operated at Aitape

Aitape

Aitape is a small town of about 8,000 people on the north coast of Papua New Guinea in the Sandaun Province. It is a coastal settlement that is almost equidistant from the provincial capitals of Wewak and Vanimo, and marks the midpoint of the highway between these two capitals...

 Harbor, tending Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron (MTBRBon) 33 and providing assistance in salvage

Marine salvage

Marine salvage is the process of rescuing a ship, its cargo, or other property from peril. Salvage encompasses rescue towing, refloating a sunken or grounded vessel, or patching or repairing a ship...

 work. On 28 August 1944, she got underway for Mios Woendi

Mios Woendi

Mios Woendi is the name of an island and was a forward base for United States Navy during World War II. The US Navy code word for the base located in Schouten Islands, was Stinker...

, Netherlands New Guinea

Netherlands New Guinea

Netherlands New Guinea refers to the West Papua region while it was an overseas territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1949 to 1962. Until 1949 it was a part of the Netherlands Indies. It was commonly known as Dutch New Guinea...

, in company with MTBRBon 33. Arriving there on 31 August 1944, she was engaged in fueling, provisioning and making final repairs to the PT boats of the squadron preparatory to sailing for Morotai

Morotai

Morotai Island Regency is a regency of North Maluku province, Indonesia, located on Morotai Island. The population was 54,876 in 2007.-History:...

 as a unit of Task Group 70.1.

Morotai

Arriving at Morotai on 16 September 1944, the day after the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 landings there, she commenced tending the boats of her squadron and Consolidated

Consolidated Aircraft

The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Reuben H. Fleet, the result of the Gallaudet Aircraft Company's liquidation and Fleet's purchase of designs from the Dayton-Wright Company as the subsidiary was being closed by its parent corporation, General Motors. Consolidated became...

 PBY Catalina

PBY Catalina

The Consolidated PBY Catalina was an American flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s produced by Consolidated Aircraft. It was one of the most widely used multi-role aircraft of World War II. PBYs served with every branch of the United States Armed Forces and in the air forces and navies of many other...

 flying boat

Flying boat

A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a float plane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy. Flying boats may be stabilized by under-wing floats or by wing-like projections from the fuselage...

s assigned to air-sea rescue

Search and rescue

Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...

 of pilots downed en route to and from raids on Truk

Chuuk

Chuuk — formerly Truk, Ruk, Hogoleu, Torres, Ugulat, and Lugulus — is an island group in the south western part of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia , along with Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap. Chuuk is the most populous of the FSM's...

. For the first three days she went about her duties unscathed in spite of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese air resistance.

At sunrise on 19 September 1944, however, a smoking Japanese fighter

Fighter aircraft

A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...

 emerged from a heavy overcast and dove for Mobjack. Unable to crash into the ship, the pilot dropped two bomb

Bomb

A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...

s which exploded close alongside, holing the deck and wounding one of her crew.

Making temporary repairs, she remained at Morotai, tending PT boats of Task Unit 70.1.2 and PBYs now ranging over the Netherlands East Indies

Dutch East Indies

The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....

 on relief and intelligence and reconnaissance missions, until February 1945.

The Philippines

During February and March 1945, Mobjack transported materiel, spares, and advanced base personnel as she accompanied motor torpedo boat squadrons to forward areas. At Mios Woendi on 1 April 1945, she took on base force personnel of MTBRons 9 and 10 and on 2 April 1945 got underway for Samar

Samar

Samar, formerly and also known as Western Samar, is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Catbalogan City and covers the western portion of Samar as well as several islands in the Samar Sea located to the west of the mainland...

 in the Philippine Islands

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. Arriving on 11 April 1945, she disembarked her passengers and steamed on to Palawan

Palawan

Palawan is an island province of the Philippines located in the MIMAROPA region or Region 4. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the...

, where she relieved motor torpedo boat tender USS Willoughby (AGP-9)

USS Willoughby (AGP-9)

The second USS Willoughby was a motor torpedo boat tender that served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946.-Construction and Deployment:...

 as the repair unit for MTBRons 20 and 23. She moved on to Mangarin Bay

Mangarin Bay

Mangarin Bay is situated to the east of Mangarin Point, on the west coast of Mindoro, among the Philippine Islands. The bay is shoal and sheltered from the wind by the point and Ilin Island. Magarin point terminates in a long sandy pit off which the depth is 4 to 5 fathoms. Farther in the water...

, Mindoro

Mindoro

Mindoro is the seventh-largest island in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Luzon, and northeast of Palawan. The southern coast of Mindoro forms the northeastern extremum of the Sulu Sea.-History:...

, in mid‑May 1945 to overhaul and repair motor torpedo boats for use in the Philippines and in the upcoming Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

 operations.

The Borneo campaign

On 8 June 1945, Mobjack steamed to Samar to stage for the landings at Balikpapan

Balikpapan

Balikpapan is a seaport city on the eastern coast of the island of Borneo, Indonesia, in the East Kalimantan province, a resource-rich region well known for its timber, mining, and petroleum export products. Two harbors, Semayang and Kariangau , and the Sepinggan International Airport are the main...

 on Borneo. Departing on 21 June 1945, she moved, with MTBRons 10 and 27, to Basilan Island

Basilan (island)

Basilan Island is an island of the Philippines, it belongs to Basilan Province with its capital Isabela City.Basilan is geographically located between latitude 6°15' and 7°00' longitude 121°15' and 122°30'....

, thence, on 26 June 1945 , further down the Sulu Archipelago

Sulu Archipelago

The Sulu Archipelago is a chain of islands in the southwestern Philippines. This archipelago is considered to be part of the Moroland by the local rebel independence movement. This island group forms the northern limit of the Celebes Sea....

 and into Makassar Strait

Makassar Strait

Makassar Strait is a strait between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi in Indonesia. To the north it joins the Celebes Sea, while to the south it meets the Java Sea.The Mahakam River of Borneo empties into the strait....

. On 27 June 1945, she joined the minesweepers

Minesweeper (ship)

A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...

, at work since 1 June 1945, and the ships of the bombardment group, which had been pounding the Japanese-held oil

Oil

An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

 center since 17 June 1945, in preparing the way for the Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n assault force. For four days Mobjack fueled and sustained the motor torpedo boats assigned to night patrol off the coast to prevent the Japanese from replacing naval mine

Naval mine

A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...

s, restoring obstacles blown by underwater demolition teams

Underwater Demolition Team

The Underwater Demolition Teams were an elite special-purpose force established by the United States Navy during World War II. They also served during the Korean War and the Vietnam War...

, or disturbing channel

Channel (geography)

In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or human-made deeper course through a reef, sand bar, bay, or any shallow body of water...

 markers planted by the minesweepers. On 1 July 1945, these extensive preparations and precautions proved to have been well executed as wave after wave of personnel of the Australian 7th Division of the Australian I Corps went ashore without a casualty.

Mobjack, harassed by Japanese night air attacks until Royal Australian Air Force

Royal Australian Air Force

The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...

 night fighter

Night fighter

A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility...

s stopped them, remained outside the harbor for the next nine days. On 11 July 1945 she stood into the harbor, where, on 15 August 1945, she received a dispatch directing the cessation of all offensive action against the Japanese. World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 was over.

Mobjack received three battle stars for World War II service.

Post-World War II Navy career

On 12 September 1945, Mobjack returned to the Philippines and for the next two months engaged in decommissioning

Ship decommissioning

To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....

 motor torpedo boats under Commander, Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons, Philippine Sea Frontier

Philippine Sea Frontier

The Philippine Sea Frontier was a United States Navy Sea Frontier active in 1941, and reformed in 1944.On 8 December 1941 it was part of the 16th Naval District, a component of the United States Asiatic Fleet....

. On 10 November 1945 she headed eastward, arriving at San Francisco, California, on 29 November 1945.

In December 1945, stripping of Mobjack began, and on 21 August 1946 she decommissioned

Ship decommissioning

To decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....

. She was transferred the same day to the custody of the U.S. Department of Commerce

United States Department of Commerce

The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...

.

U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey career

Mobjack joined the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey later in 1946 as the survey ship USC&GS Pioneer (OSS 31). Pioneer operated in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

 and made important discoveries related to the theory

Theory

The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...

 of plate tectonics

Plate tectonics

Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...

. She was sold for scrap on 4 May 1966 to National Metal and Steel Corporation

National Metal and Steel

National Metal and Steel Corporation was engaged in ship dismantling operations at Terminal Island in Los Angeles, California. Operations ceased on 1 January 1986 when the company lost its harbor facility....

, Terminal Island

Terminal Island

Terminal Island is an island located in Los Angeles County, California between Los Angeles Harbor and Long Beach Harbor. Originally a mudflat known to the Spanish as Isla Raza de Buena Gente, and later called Rattlesnake Island, it has officially been Terminal Island since 1918...

, California.