.gif)
USS Sarita (AKA-39)
Encyclopedia
USS Sarita (AKA-39) was an named after the minor planet 796 Sarita
796 Sarita
-External links:*...
. The meaning of the name is unknown. http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/aa/enha/enha09.txt USS Sarita served as a commissioned ship for 22 months.
Sarita (AKA-39) was laid down on 22 December 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1900) by Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc.
Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc.
Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc. was a shipyard in both Cranston and Providence, Rhode Island. It was built during World War II and financed by the Maritime Commission as part of the country's Emergency Shipbuilding Program. It was originally operated by Rheem Manufacturing, a company with no previous...
, Providence, R.I.; launched on 23 February 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Manuel T. Sousa; 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 22 March 1945, LCDR
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
Erwin E. Smith in command.
Service history
After shakedown, Sarita arrived in Newport, R.I., on 23 April 1945 to conduct afloat training for pre-commissioning crews of AKA's. She rode out a hurricane on 25 June and completed her training duty on 6 July.On 20 July, the ship departed Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk
Naval Station Norfolk, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a base of the United States Navy, supporting naval forces in the United States Fleet Forces Command, those operating in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and Indian Ocean...
, arriving at Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
on 8 August. She sailed on 1 September with occupation troops
Occupied Japan
At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power...
for Japan, arriving at Sasebo on 22 September. She then made one voyage to Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
on 26 September, returning to Sasebo on 20 October, when she reported for "Magic Carpet"
Operation Magic Carpet (World War II)
Operation Magic Carpet was the post-World War II effort by the War Shipping Administration to repatriate over eight million American military personnel from the European, Pacific, and CBI theaters. Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships, and troop transports began repatriating soldiers from...
duty. Sarita made two voyages carrying troops home, one from Okinawa
Okinawa Island
Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, and is home to Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture. The island has an area of...
and one from Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
, before being released from "Magic Carpet" duty at Seattle in early January. After overhaul in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, the ship sailed for Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
on 6 February. She made two cargo voyages from Guam between 1 March and 30 June, calling at Saipan
Saipan
Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...
, Tokyo Bay, Tsingtao
Qingdao
' also known in the West by its postal map spelling Tsingtao, is a major city with a population of over 8.715 million in eastern Shandong province, Eastern China. Its built up area, made of 7 urban districts plus Jimo city, is home to about 4,346,000 inhabitants in 2010.It borders Yantai to the...
, Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, Okinawa, the Philippines
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...
, and Manus
Manus Island
Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...
. She returned to Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
on 25 July, and arrived under tow at San Francisco on 17 November for inactivation.
Sarita was decommissioned on 29 January 1947 and simultaneously delivered to the Maritime Commission's National Defense Reserve Fleet
National Defense Reserve Fleet
The National Defense Reserve Fleet consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.The NDRF is...
at Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay is a shallow tidal estuary at in northern California, USA. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, forming the entrance to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta...
, California. She was struck from the Navy list on 25 February 1947. On 8 June 1966, she was sold by the Maritime Administration to Zidell Explorations, Inc.
Zidell Companies
The Zidell Companies are a group of family-owned companies based in Portland, Oregon. They include Zidell Marine, a ship construction company which specializes in the building of barges, and Tube Forgings of America Inc....
, for scrapping.